CRIS Scientific Seminar 2022-2023

Friday, October 28th 2022, 11:30 am
Sciences Po (1, Place Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin) - Room K031

Are mixed ability classes bad for school performance and educational choice?
Or for social and ethnic inequality?

Jan O. Jonsson (Professor, Nuffield College, Oxford university)
Joan E. Madia (DPhil student, Nuffield College, Oxford university)

A longstanding question in the organisation of education has been how to handle pupil groups with differing ability. At the centre of this political discussion and academic theorizing is the question of teaching and learning in ability-homogenous groups. Previous research has suggested that tracking or ability grouping, attempting to make the pupil body homogeneous, does not improve learning on average, in some instances ability grouping leads to increasing inequality. However, lack of suitable data and methodological difficulties have made results inconclusive.

We contribute to the literature with a comparative study between the English school system (with institutionalized ability grouping) and Sweden (with occasional use). We study the effect of (a) homogeneity in ability in instructional groups on grade point averages (GPA), (b) the effect of ability grouping within subjects on grades in these subjects, and we extend our analyses to include educational choice of upper secondary education.
We use the harmonised CILS4EU data (around 9,000 pupils, 200 schools and 400 classrooms), containing rich information on students' ability at individual, class and school levels. We fit school fixed effects and selection models to reduce risks of selection into schools and ability groups.

We find little evidence for any efficiency gain in homogeneous instruction groups or ability grouping, but also little evidence that such grouping has any effects on inequality between students of different socioeconomic or immigrant background. In addition, we find few differences between England and Sweden.

Registration is mandatory. Thank you.

Jan O Jonsson's homepage: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/jan-o-jonsson/
Joan Madia's homepage: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/joan-madia/