Abstract
Research tells us much about the effects of primary and lower‐secondary schooling on skills inequality, but we know less about the impact of the next stage of education. This article uses a differences‐in‐differences analysis of data on literacy and numeracy skills in PISA 2000 and SAS 2011/12 to assess the contribution of upper‐secondary education and training to inequalities in skills opportunities and outcomes. It finds that greater parity of esteem between academic and vocational tracks, as found in German‐speaking and Scandinavian countries, has some positive effects in mitigating skills inequality. However, the most important factors seem to be high completion rates from long‐cycle upper‐secondary education and training and mandatory provision of Maths and the national language in the curriculum.
Highlights
Countries vary considerably in the degree of inequality in adult skills and part of this variation can be explained by the characteristics of education systems (OECD, 2010; Green et al, 2015)
Research suggests that more unequal outcomes are likely to occur in countries when there is early selection, a high proportion of fully privately funded schools, a lack of standardisation in curricula and assessment, and in federal systems where funding is devolved to the regional level (Hanushek & Woßmann, 2006, 2010; Schu€tz et al, 2008; OECD, 2010)
Effects of upper-secondary education and training on skills inequality 11 Results We start by looking at the changes in skills inequality measures between ages 15 and 27 across countries and country groups and at how countries rank in relation to the magnitude of these changes
Summary
Countries vary considerably in the degree of inequality in adult skills and part of this variation can be explained by the characteristics of education systems (OECD, 2010; Green et al, 2015). We know a good deal about the effects on skills inequality of different structures and practices in education prior to the end of lower-secondary schooling. As we will show in this paper, there is strong evidence that levels of inequality in literacy and numeracy skills change substantially between 15 and 27 years of age, but the direction and degree of these changes vary significantly by country. Which characteristics of education policy and practice are responsible for the different effects has
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