Comprehensive School System Research Articles

Between-School Ability Tracking and Ethnic Segregation in Secondary Schooling

Abstract Between-school ability tracking—the assignment of students to different school types based on their prior achievement—is usually associated with increased ethnic segregation across schools. This article argues that stronger between-school ability tracking is not only associated with stronger ethnic sorting into school types, thus increasing segregation. At the same time, it hampers majority flight, majority members’ avoidance of exposure to minority members, thus decreasing segregation. To identify the two-fold effect of tracking the article exploits a unique feature of the German secondary school system: regional variation in the strength of between-school ability tracking. Analyses rely on administrative data entailing geocoded information on all secondary schools in Germany in 2008/2009. Results corroborate expectations of a two-fold effect: there is indication that between-school ability tracking increases segregation via more sorting into tracks while at the same time decreasing it via less school sorting within each track and via less spatial sorting. This suggests that school reforms changing tracked school systems into more comprehensive school systems may have a weaker desegregating impact than expected.

Två artskilda perioder för pedagogisk forskning

How might we explain and understand Swedish educational policy and the development of the Swedish school system, from the comprehensive, equality-oriented direction introduced in the early 1960s to the fragmented and divided system of today? In the following I will claim that two fundamentally different educational policy periods can be discerned. The first coincides with the first three decades of the comprehensive school system, from 1962 to 1989, the second with the three decades from 1989/1990 to the present. These two periods have created quite different conditions for the work of schools, and also for educational research. The crucial reforms laying the foundations for the shift in educational policy between the two periods were heavily influenced and inspired by the transnational emphasis in the late 1980s on the individual rights set out in international conventions, implying a parental right to educational authority.
 In recent decades, the consequences of this shift have manifested themselves in a partly privatised and marketized school system, characterised and driven by a logic clearly distinguished from the ideals and aspirations underpinning the struggles of the earlier period for a democratic and equality-oriented school system.

Teachers’ written school memories and the change to the comprehensive school system in Finland in the 1970s

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on teachers’ written memories of Finland’s comprehensive school reform in the 1970s and examines teachers’ reminiscences of this major change, when elementary (primary) schools and lower secondary (grammar) schools were transformed into comprehensive schools, thereby guaranteeing nine-year basic education with a unified curriculum for all pupils. The teachers’ written memories are part of the larger national collection of school memories arranged in 2013 by two academic societies. This study’s focus lies in these teachers’ highly sensitive, grass-roots level personal perspectives. The teachers’ narratives comprised vivid and concrete memories in which they recalled the past nostalgically and in detail. In the reminiscences, the change in the education system was noted and even analysed in a versatile way, but at the same time, the reform was viewed as merely one episode occurring during these teachers’ individual life paths. The writers emphasised the reform’s positive aspects and did not interpret contradictions as overwhelming, although some narratives included reminiscences in which the disputes from that period were crystallised. The collective narrative in the accounts transformed from uncertainty and contradictions at the beginning of the comprehensive school reform to favourableness and positive attitudes toward the new education system after the transition period.

Educational justice, segregated schooling and vocational education

The philosophical debate on educational justice currently focusses on the Anglo-American situation. This essay brings in an additional perspective. It provides a justice-oriented critique of the segregated education systems in German-speaking countries. First, arguments that are commonly put forward in favour of these systems are rejected. Second, an additional argument against early tracking in education is formulated. It is claimed that segregated education systems tend to undermine children’s ‘right to an open future’. It is also explained that the segregated systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are linked to well-established systems of vocational education and training. It is argued, in this essay, that a workplace-based vocational system can be an important element of a just education system. The proposal is, then, to introduce a comprehensive school system in the first 8 or 9 school years that prepares students for both the vocational system and the academic track ( Gymnasium). Against this background, a so-called threshold conception of educational justice – that contains two different threshold levels – is formulated.

Pupil selection segments urban comprehensive schooling in Finland: composition of school classes in pupils’ school performance, gender, and ethnicity

ABSTRACTThe Finnish comprehensive school system is regularly referred to as a uniform and “no-tracking”. In this article, we show with novel urban case data in Finland that school performance differed significantly between schools, most strikingly between school classes, and was connected to the school's selectiveness in pupil admission. A comprehensive registry data of 13-year-olds in all schools and school classes of one Finnish city was used. Via the case of urban Finland, it is discussed how school choice policies, and thus pupil selection, has led to hidden ability grouping although applied among totally publicly run basic schooling. Thus the traditional perception of a uniform Finnish comprehensive schooling seems not to be valid in the urban contexts of our study.

Academic Achievement and Tracking A Theory Based on Grading Standards

We present a theory explaining the impact of ability tracking on academic performance based on grading policies. Our model distinguishes between initial ability, which is mainly determined by parental background, and eagerness to extend knowledge. We show that achievements of low ability students may be higher in a comprehensive school system, even if there are no synergy effects from teaching different students together. This arises because the comprehensive school sets a compromise standard which exceeds the standard from the low ability track. Moreover, if students with lower initial ability have higher eagerness to learn, merging classes will increase average performance.

Модель «Ресурсный класс» для инклюзии детей с РАС с точки зрения образовательного менеджмента: риски и возможности

«Resource class», or «Resource zone», is a model of inclusive education for children with autism spectrum disorders that has proved its effectivity in integraing children to comprehensive school system for the past five years. A resource class is a place where the resources for inclusion of a child with autism of other mental disor¬ders into the school community are gathered. Here, the point of ‘resource class’ model is explained, described are the experience of introduction of resource zone technology, risks and problems appearing when creating a resource class in school. Member of the council of the Regional public organization to help children with autism spectrum disorders «Contact», educators, shares her experience in creating a resource class for autistic children with parents’ effort in «School № 2009» in Moscow.

Pathways through secondary school in a comprehensive system: does parental education and school attended affect students’ choice?

As the Australian labour market restructured during the 1980s and 1990s, Year 12 retention rates more than doubled between 1983 and 1993 secondary schools diversified to include vocational education and training programs as alternative pathways through school. From a human capital perspective, the completion of vocational qualifications in school may represent strategic investments that enhance labour market outcomes. Using data provided by the Education and Training Directorate of the Australian Capital Territory, this paper examines the links between parents’ education and pathway through school. The results indicate that stratification within the comprehensive school system sorts students into different pathways according to parental education. After controlling for academic achievement in Year 9, students with lower-educated parents were more likely than those with university-educated parents to undertake a vocational education pathway. Furthermore, level of disadvantage of the school attended in Year 9 exacerbated rather than alleviated the effect of parental education.

Organizational-pedagogic technology of formation of motor functioning culture as mean of physical fitness improvement of 5 form

Purpose: to analyze influence of organizational-pedagogic technology of formation of motor functioning’s culture of five form pupils in process of physical education; to test experimentally methodic of formation of motor functioning’s culture by means of general gymnastic in physical education system of comprehensive schools’ pupils. Material: The research was conducted in comprehensive school № 67, Kharkov. 57 pupils of five forms (5-А form - 30 pupils, 5-B - 27 pupils) participated in the research. Results: we worked out organizational-pedagogic technology of formation of motor functioning’s culture “Main gymnastic at school”, which positively influenced on development of physical fitness of experimental groups’ pupils. Conclusions: it was established that under influence of selected exercises of main gymnastic and introduced competitiveness elements pupils’ movements became more accurate, plastic, acquired higher amplitude, coordination.

Is Education the Pathway to Success? A Comparison of Second Generation Turkish Professionals in Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands

AbstractEducation is often seen as the most important mobility channel for children of immigrants. To what extent is this true? In this article, we look at successful second generation Turkish professionals in Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands. What kind of pathways did they take to become a professional? Based on the large quantitative international TIES survey, I reconstruct the pathways to a professional position in the four countries. We see how the open, comprehensive school systems in Sweden and France provide the main paths to a professional job. In Germany, however, it is the apprenticeship system. The Netherlands is a case in between. I describe how different educational institutional arrangements and the different ways the transition to the labour market is organised in the four countries also result in different routes to a professional career. I use new qualitative material from the ELITES project that was gathered in the four countries to illustrate the pathways to success in greater depth.

Introduction to the EERJ dossier

After the Second World War, the OECD promoted the idea – which had begun to emerge between the wars in various European countries – that the creation of a comprehensive school system, bringing together all children from age 6 to 15 or 16, was the precondition for the democratisation of society and economic progress. This model was implemented very differently from one country to another. The ideal has now ended in disenchantment. Almost everywhere, the schooling of 11 to 15-year-olds is seen as the weak link in educational systems, a site of violence and suffering for pupils and teachers. A new system is being put in place, which some call post-comprehensive. Without abandoning the concern for equality, the international organisations are foregrounding a new system of reference based on performance obligations: skills standards, international comparisons through which each country’s performance can be judged in a context of competition. The debate has moved on: the American New Right places its hopes in the market; the European texts propose several readjustments of the social-democratic compromise: an equality of performances which takes the form of the definition of key skills; an attempt at compromise between the ideal of redistribution, the imperatives of performance and the creation of a collective consciousness in pluriethnic and pluricultural societies which takes the form of the idea of inclusive societies. The comprehensive school and the debates surrounding it are liable to be overtaken before being analysed. A retrospective analysis seems necessary to do justice to the efforts that have been made. The way societies organise their educational system is a key element in the production and transformation of the social. This special double issue of the European Educational Research Journal examines the current state of the comprehensive model in Europe and formulates the hypothesis of a post-comprehensive era; in so doing, it addresses the fundamental problem area of the relationship between education and society(ies). It was this aim of retrospective analysis that inspired the organisation, at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Porto in 2014, of a symposium on “The emergence of a post-comprehensive school in Europe? The role of social science journals in constructing a reflexive and critical analysis”. This was followed by a call for contributions for this EERJ dossier, “Re-examining the comprehensive school project in Europe.” The aim of that invitation and of this ensuing double issue is to offer a European perspective on the question of the comprehensive school. There were 21 responses to the call; ten articles were selected after review. Together they provide a wide-ranging view of the situation.

Introducing and piloting the KiVa bullying prevention programme in the UK

The history of bullying research is summarised and the KiVa bullying prevention programme described. KiVa is a whole-school programme with universal and indicated actions for children aged 7 to 15 years in the Finnish comprehensive school system. It was developed at Turku University, Finland, by social psychologist Christina Salmivalli and colleagues. It has demonstrated significant benefits in a large-scale randomised controlled trial and a subsequent roll-out of the programme to 90 per cent of schools in the Finnish comprehensive system (www.kivakoulu.fi/). KiVa is based on research showing the important role played by bystanders in the bullying process. The universal and indicated actions within the programme are described. The universal actions consist of class lessons, whole school actions and a parent website. Evidence from the Finnish trials is summarised.The paper describes the introduction of the programme to the UK in 2012 and the results from the first, psychologist led, UK pilot trial of the programme are reported. Seventeen schools participated in the trial of Unit 2, at the time the only material available in English (for children aged 9 to 11 years), and delivered KiVa lessons to year 5 and/or year 6 pupils. Children completed the online KiVa survey prior to programme commencement and at the end of the school year. Significant reductions were reported in bullying and victimisation. Teachers reported high levels of pupil acceptance and engagement with lessons. The paper concludes with reflections on the role that educational and other applied psychologists can play in further disseminating this programme.

Why Fix something that is not Broken? The Implementation of School Choice Policy and Parental Attitudes towards Equality and Uniformity of Comprehensive School System in Finland

In Finland, the pupil bodies of schools consisting of children living in the nearby area (school district) has been a central principle ever since the founding of the ‘folk school’ network in the 1890s. Children were allocated to schools on the basis of residence. This policy was changed in the mid 1990’s and the free school choice was introduced in Finland. Although a major change in the school policy the opening of the school choice was not much discussed in the public or in the parliament. It was introduced by a promise to give parents more freedom, to better respond to the needs of the talented pupils, and to bring forth more high quality schools. The evaluation of possible unintended consequences on equality was neglected. In this article we ask: How the socio-economic position of the family is related to the school choice of the child? What is the role of socioeconomic status and educational level of parents in explaining the differences in attitudes towards the uniformity of comprehensive school system, and what, in turn, is the role of parental attitudes in explaining the school choice? To answer these questions we analyse large survey data collected in five biggest cities in Finland in spring 2012 (n=2 617). We conclude that school choice in Finland is particularly exercised by highly educated families whose children do well in school. Of the single factors the most predictive indicator of exercising the choice is the child’s average of latest report card, but also variables indicating socio-economic background strongly predict the parental choice.

What limits of legitimate discourse? The case of elite sport as ‘thinkable’ official knowledge in the Norwegian national curriculum

In 2006, elite sport was introduced into the Norwegian national curriculum as an elective subject in the pre-tertiary school. Grades achieved in this 5-hours-a-week subject count towards school-leavers' overall attainment grades. Prior to 2006, this subject was only offered as a specially adapted, alternative pedagogy in private schools. The paper analyzes how ideas about elite performance have become mainstream, particularly in light of the seeming lack of public policy supporting such a development. By using Bernstein's conceptual tools, it analyzes the few existing policy statements about elite sport in the pre-tertiary education sector and builds on interview data with key policy players in the Norwegian Parliament in order to shed light on this seemingly market-driven development. It asks which discourses have legitimated the transformation of elite sport skills, knowledge and values from an exclusive private school niche to national curricular knowledge to meet the physically, most-able and ambitious athlete-students in the pre-tertiary schools, and in so doing, include the development of sport athletes as an educational task of the comprehensive school system. Finally, it addresses whether agencies outside education policy circles may have affected the legitimation of elite sport as elective curricular knowledge to a certain group of students.

School Segregation and Its Effects on Educational Equality and Efficiency in 16 OECD Comprehensive School Systems

Using PISA data for 16 Western OECD countries having comprehensive school systems, we explore the conditions under which the socioeconomic composition of schools affects educational efficiency and equality, to a greater or lesser extent. First, a multilevel analysis is applied to examine and compare the effect of school socioeconomic composition on students’ outcomes across countries and comprehensive models. Second, a simulation exercise shows the variations in the efficiency and equality levels that would result in two distinct hypothetical school scenarios in each country—a segregated scenario and a nonsegregated scenario. We find that a hypothetical reduction in school segregation would positively affect educational equality in all of the countries considered, but the impact on levels of educational efficiency in individual countries varies with the structure of comprehensive schooling.

Higher education expansion, tracking, and student effort

This paper studies the effects of tracking on student effort and academic achievement during secondary school. Students under the comprehensive school system make effort to increase their academic achievement that determines the probability of gaining admissions to college. As college admissions become less competitive or it becomes easier to gain admissions, it increases the benefits of effort, encouraging more effort. Those students streamed into academic tracks at early ages under tracking are most likely to be admitted to college, and the competitiveness of college admissions does not affect their effort. As a result, tracking tends to perform worse in terms of average secondary-school academic achievement, as higher education expands and college admissions become less competitive.

Pedagogical transformations of “religion” into “culture” in Danish state mass schooling from the 1900s to the 1930s

Particularly after the Danish political system changed to parliamentarism in 1901, a growing interest in, and expanded meaning of, culture as a pedagogical category developed in relation to state schooling, on the road to a comprehensive school system for “the whole population”. This article elaborates on the role played by theological scholars in particular in transforming “religion” into a pedagogised category of ‘culture’, hence addressing what were to become central welfare state challenges: creating social cohesion, and thus defusing class conflict while maintaining social difference. The article examines two liberal theologians involved in the educational question, namely Aage Bentzen (1894–1953), Old Testament scholar and proponent of so-called biblical criticism, and one of his liberal–theological predecessors, Edvard Lehmann (1862–1930), founding father of Comparative Religion Studies and liberal theology as a movement in Denmark. A manifold understanding of “culture” appeared in their work which aimed at civilising, creating belongingness and establishing a common but differentiated relation to labour. In this endeavour, and in addition to scientific ideas of the Bible and Christianity as “culture” and “history”, inspiration from – for instance – fascist and anarchist ideas on labour, state and society appear to fit well with inspiration from American pragmatism. The article argues that the theological pedagogisation of culture can be understood as a sacralisation of the state, aiming at governing the population through state schooling in a double sense: by creating cohesion while maintaining and producing social differentiation.

Navigating the school system in Sweden, Belgium, Austria and Germany: School segregation and second generation school trajectories

In this article we describe and explain how children of immigrants navigate their educational careers. Sequence analyses followed by optimal matching is used to cluster individual educational trajectories in four European countries, which differ in national educational systems, ranging from comprehensive to highly differentiated (Sweden, Belgium, Austria and Germany). Samples are young adults of the Turkish and Moroccan second-generation and the majority group (aged 18–35) in seven cities in the selected countries ( N = 4022). We examine how perceived segregation and friendship networks affect the routes that students take through the educational system, i.e. school trajectories. Across school systems, having majority group friends increases the chances of following academic trajectories that end with university attendance. The effects of perceived school segregation are mixed. More comprehensive school systems protect against negative effects of segregation for second-generation students.

Educational achievement in selective and comprehensive local education authorities: a configurational analysis

Selective and comprehensive school systems vary in both the degree and timing of selection. To study the consequences of such variation, cross-national comparisons are usually undertaken. Given that cultural differences between countries affect pathways and outcomes, apportioning causal influence in such studies can be difficult. In 1970s Britain, selective and comprehensive systems coexisted. This enables us to compare the influences of organisational arrangements without the complication of national cultural differences. We analyse, for children of various abilities, while taking account of gender and class, the effect on achievement of experiencing comprehensive or selective schooling. Assuming that contextual and individual factors work conjuncturally in producing outcomes, we employ Ragin's configurational Qualitative Comparative Analysis. By treating cases in the National Child Development Study as configurations of factors, we are able to analyse the sufficient and necessary conditions for achievement. We find that system differences affect only some high-ability children's educational outcomes.

Experiencing fairness at school: An international study

This paper uses survey responses from around 13,000 grade 9 pupils in French-speaking Belgium, the Czech Republic, England, France and Italy to examine their experiences of fairness in schools. Can differences between countries, types of schools or interactions with teachers, influence what pupils regard as fair, either at school or more widely? Despite the somewhat different kinds of school systems and countries involved in this study, the views of pupils in each are largely the same on many issues. Pupils clearly distinguish between the universal aspects of fairness, such as respect for pupils by teachers, and the discriminatory ones, such as merited reward and punishment. In fact, in pupil accounts it is the teachers who tend to create unfair situations, for example by using discriminatory principles in domains more suited to universal ones. If accepted, this has implications for the preparation and development of all teachers. One major difference between countries is that pupils in the more comprehensive school system at age 14 of England are less tolerant of extra help being given to a struggling pupil. This may be because they are more likely to encounter diversity of talent and motivation than pupils in heavily selected and tracked systems elsewhere. England has a policy of including pupils with additional learning needs in mainstream schools, and pupils there are most in favour of pupils with difficulties being taught separately. These findings and others like them suggest that childrens’ growing sense of fairness could be influenced both by individual interaction with teachers and the nature of a school system.