Acceptance of Secondary School Track Recommendations and Their Effects on Educational Achievement

In Germany the transition from primary school to the different tracks of secondary school is decisive for students' later educational careers as subsequent track mobility is rather low. This paper focuses on the role of teachers' recommendations of secondary school tracks at the end of primary school. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), and our sample consists of persons born between 1984 and 1991. We show that the acceptance of teachers' recommendations is socially selective and that differences in the acceptance of recommendations according to social origin have a significant impact on later educational outcomes. Assuming that participation in the academic track (Gymnasium) at age 17 is an indicator of educational achievement we find that the rejection of low-track recommendations pays off in particular for children of parents with high educational levels. Assuming that the attendance of the Gymnasium at age 17 predetermines the chance of earning university entry qualifications, this outcome is of crucial importance for post-secondary educational achievement. We interpret our results as support for the hypothesis that the rejection of track recommendations is a particular manifestation of the secondary effects of social origin.