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The desegregating effect of school tracking

Author

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  • Francisco Martínez-Mora

  • Gianni De Fraja

Abstract

This paper makes the following point: “detracking” schools, that is preventing them from allocating students to classes according to their ability, may lead to an increase in income residential segregation. It does so in a simple model where households care about the school peer group of their children. If ability and income are positively correlated, tracking implies that some high income households face the choice of either living in the areas where most of the other high income households live and having their child assigned to the low track, or instead living in lower income neighbourhoods where their child would be in the high track. Under mild conditions, tracking leads to an equilibrium with partial income desegregation where perfect income segregation would be the only stable outcome without tracking.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Martínez-Mora & Gianni De Fraja, 2012. "The desegregating effect of school tracking," Discussion Papers in Economics 12/24, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    • Handle: RePEc:lec:leecon:12/24
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    File URL: https://www.le.ac.uk/economics/research/RePEc/lec/leecon/dp12-24.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Ellen Greaves & Hélène Turon, 2023. "School choice and neighborhood sorting: Equilibrium consequences of geographic school admissions," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 24/779, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    2. Betts, Julian R. & Hahn, Youjin & Zau, Andrew C., 2017. "Can testing improve student learning? An evaluation of the mathematics diagnostic testing project," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 54-64.
    3. Luigi Benfratello & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Gilberto Turati, 2015. "Tracking in the Tracks in the Italian Schooling: Inequality Patterns in an Urban Context," Working papers 030, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    4. Luigi Benfratello & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Gilberto Turati, 2020. "Tracking in the tracks in the Italian public schooling: Inequality patterns in an urban context," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(2), pages 39-70.
    5. Burger, Kaspar, 2019. "The socio-spatial dimension of educational inequality: A comparative European analysis," MPRA Paper 95309, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods

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