Early transitions and tertiary enrolment: The cumulative impact of primary and secondary effects on entering university in Germany

Our aim is to assess how the number of working class students entering German universities can effectively be increased. Therefore, we estimate the proportion of students from the working class that would successfully enter university if certain policy interventions were in place to eliminate primary effects (performance differentials between social classes) and/or secondary effects (choice differentials net of performance) at different transition points. We extend previous research by analysing the sequence of transitions between elementary school enrolment and university enrolment and by accounting for the impact that manipulations at earlier transitions have on the performance distribution and size of the student ‘risk-set’ at subsequent transitions. To this end, we develop a novel simulation procedure which also seeks to find viable solutions to the shortcomings in the German data landscape. Our findings show that interventions are most effective if they take place early in the educational career. Neutralizing secondary effects at the transition to upper secondary school proves to be the single most effective means to increase participation rates in tertiary education among working class students. However, this comes at the expense of lower average performance levels. (DIPF/author

Young Minority Home‐Language Students’ Biased Reading Self‐Concept and Its Consequences for Reading Development

Young students who speak a different language at home than that spoken in school (i.e., a minority home-language) appear to exhibit a biased reading self-concept. Importantly, this biased reading self-concept may correspond with altered causal pathways between reading self-concept and achievement in minority home-language students. To test this idea, the authors examined cross-lagged links between reading self-concept and reading achievement in a large multiple-group longitudinal study in Germany. Students with German (n = 885), Turkish (n = 193), or another (n = 550) home language were tested yearly in grades 1-4 on measures of reading and reading self-concept. Despite showing lower reading achievement, students speaking a minority home language exhibited a higher reading self-concept. Cross-lagged paths revealed reciprocal effects between reading achievement and reading self-concept from grade 1 to grade 2, particularly for students with German as a home language. Minority home-language students showed significantly lower effects of reading achievement on their subsequent reading self-concept from grade 1 to grade 2. From grade 2 onward, reading achievement predicted reading self-concept, but not vice versa