Conference Program

Socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities continue to influence upper secondary education choices in Italy, as in the rest of Europe (OECD 2023; INVALSI 2025). These disparities stem both from “primary effects” of individual background on academic achievement and from “secondary effects” related to family decision-making processes, which are particularly relevant in the Italian context (Ress & Azzolini 2014). While most studies have focused on dynamics linked to students’ individual and family characteristics, a growing body of research shows that the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of lower secondary schools also shapes upper secondary school choices (Tan et al. 2023; Rosenqvist & Brandén 2024). However, empirical evidence on the mechanisms through which school composition affects subsequent educational decisions remains limited.

This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the “school effect”, that is, the mechanisms through which the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of lower secondary schools influences upper secondary education choices. The findings presented are drawn from research conducted in Milan in 2025, combining INVALSI data analysis with qualitative interviews involving school leaders and teachers from ten lower secondary schools (39 interviews in total) and students and parents from four of these schools (56 interviews in total). The research is part of the project EDIN – Understanding School Effects: How the Socioeconomic and Ethnic Composition of Schools Affects Educational Inequalities, funded by Fondazione Cariplo.

Quantitative findings show that students attending socially advantaged schools are significantly more likely to enrol in academic high schools, while those in schools with higher concentrations of socio-economically disadvantaged and migrant-background students more frequently choose technical or vocational tracks. Qualitative findings show that, while school guidance practices share similar aims and approaches, the content and tone of guidance vary by social composition. In disadvantaged schools, collective information sessions focus strongly on technical and vocational institutes, with academic tracks presented as more demanding and suitable primarily for “excellent” students. Teachers often adopt a cautious approach, recommending pathways considered more attainable or secure. In socially advantaged or mixed schools, students are more widely exposed to academic options through school initiatives and peer networks. In socially advantaged contexts, family aspirations weigh more heavily and academic tracks are encouraged even for average performers. Overall, guidance practices appear to adapt to school contexts in ways that ultimately reinforce, rather than mitigate, existing inequalities and the “school effect”.

The analysis highlights the central role of school composition in re-producing or counteracting pre-existing inequalities. These findings call for reflection on the need for policies aimed at reducing school segregation and rethinking information and guidance practices to promote more equitable access to educational opportunities.

Lower secondary school represents the final stage of the Italian education system in which social classes, gender, and citizenship backgrounds remain relatively mixed. With the transition to upper secondary education, however, a process of differentiation begins - more or less explicit - giving rise to various forms of “educational streaming.”

These streaming processes - or, in some cases, actual segregation - intersect with inequalities in learning and educational outcomes and simultaneously reinforce them. The result is an implicitly hierarchical upper secondary education system, structured into studies perceived (by teachers, families, and public opinion) as first-, second-, and third-tier options or, alternatively, as intended for students considered “more or less capable,” “native or foreign,” or “male or female.” Within this framework, both explicit and implicit selection mechanisms operate, active at entry and throughout school , formally justified by academic performance but often intertwined with social, cultural, or undeclared criteria. Academic performance itself, as widely recognized, is frequently influenced by students’ socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

The streaming that occurs at the end of the first education cycle thus acts as a telling indicator of the persistent selective structure Italian secondary education, which still remains far from fully achieving the principles of equity, inclusion, and effectiveness enshrined in Articles 3 and 34 of the Italian Constitution.

The contribution aims to outline a comprehensive picture of these dynamics through the integrated analysis of multiple sources and datasets, examined from diachronic and longitudinal perspectives, across geographical areas and in relation to the different upper secondary studies. The paper also advances several proposals in terms of policies and actions. The proposed contribution is based on a methodology for data extraction, processing, and interpretation aimed at monitoring school dropouts at the local level, developed and tested by Oxfam Italy in five different school systems and, vertically, in fifteen lower and upper secondary schools.

The primary focus is on the secondary education segment (lower and upper secondary levels). By combining data on explicit and implicit dropouts, the study seeks to provide a detailed overview of inequalities in learning and outcomes, highlighting how structural and contextual factors interact in shaping educational results.

Among the research hypotheses to be explored through data analysis are:

• the “ambivalent” relationship between explicit and implicit dropouts: does reducing predictive events associated with explicit dropouts (failures, grade repetition, delays, changing schools) - and therefore lowering the risk of early school leaving - necessarily lead to lower levels of learning and competencies?
• the “pyramidal” configuration and persistent selective structure of upper secondary education - from the academic high school track, including internal differentiation, to vocational education - appear confirmed by a wide range of data. The hypothesis is that this structure produces “mirror effects,” both ex ante (in school choices) and ex post (in labor market stratification);
• do streaming processes already emerge at entry and become consolidated throughout the school? What relationship exists between educational streaming and school dropouts? The proposed hypothesis is that each school’s “positioning” within the system contributes, in a circular manner, to reinforcing both streaming processes and dropouts.

Teacher turnover has been identified as one of the main factors in shaping teacher stratification dynamics across schools (Feng & Sass, 2017; Steele et al., 2015; Clotfelter, Ladd & Vigdor, 2011). International literature has consistently shown that teacher turnover does not affect all schools uniformly but rather tends to have a greater impact on schools that concentrate students from socioeconomically disadvantaged or migrant backgrounds, with higher poverty rates and lower academic performance, which systematically exhibit higher turnover rates than more socially advantaged schools (Sorensen & Ladd, 2020; Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2019; Allen, Burgess & Mayo, 2017; Barbieri, Rossetti & Sestito, 2011). These schools face persistent challenges in retaining highly qualified teachers and in consolidating stable teaching staff, which contributes to intensifying educational inequality between schools (Ferrer-Esteban et al., 2025; Ingersoll et al., 2019). In the case of Catalonia, although teacher turnover is widespread across the education system, available evidence indicates that it is particularly concentrated in schools with high levels of social vulnerability (Ferrer-Esteban et al., 2025). However, the analysis of this phenomenon has traditionally been examined through annual measures that provide a short-term approximation of teacher turnover, thereby limiting understanding of the temporal dimension of turnover processes and of sustained patterns of staff instability over time.

The aim of this research is to deepen the analysis of the relationship between teacher turnover and the social composition of schools in Catalonia, adopting a longitudinal perspective that enables teacher turnover to be examined as a cumulative process of staff instability over successive years. The study draws on Holme et al. (2018), who propose approaching teacher turnover beyond annual rates and conceptualising it as a process that manifests in different patterns of instability measured through longitudinal indicators. Methodologically, this study employs a quantitative approach based on the analysis of official administrative data from the Department of Education of Catalan Government, covering seven academic years (2018-2019 to 2024-2025). Through the construction and application of longitudinal indicators of teacher turnover, the study identifies not only the profiles of schools with high turnover rates, but also distinct underlying patterns of instability, distinguishing between situations of chronic instability, cumulative instability, isolated episodes, or intermittent dynamics. The analysis examines how these patterns of instability are distributed across schools according to their social composition and students’ level of vulnerability, thereby enabling the identification of schools facing significant challenges in retaining teachers. The research findings capture prolonged trajectories of disadvantage experienced by schools, most of which are concentrated in the lower percentiles, and provide new evidence on how the persistence of teacher turnover in contexts of social vulnerability constrains these schools’ capacity to consolidate qualified and stable teaching staff, thereby reinforcing patterns of teacher stratification and contributing to the reproduction of educational inequalities in contexts of school segregation.

Despite various reform efforts, social background still has a strong influence on a child's educational opportunities in Germany (Busemeyer et al., 2023; OECD, 2023; Scharf et al., 2020). So far, little is paid to the institutional mechanisms that (re)produce inequalities in the everyday structures and practices of the school system. Organizational regulations enshrined in legal and administrative documents can create differentiation processes that systematically disadvantage certain groups of students and perpetuate existing disparities (Böhmer, 2025). One theoretical perspective that has only been used sporadically to date but offers great analytical potential for investigating such mechanisms is the concept of space as a product of social action (Kessl et al., 2016; Löw & Sturm, 2019; Riveros & Nyereyemhuka, 2023).

In Germany, the transition from primary to secondary school represents a decisive moment for the emergence of social inequality and manifests itself in segregated school landscapes – especially in large agglomerations such as Hamburg (Fernandez & Zehetner, 2025; Racherbäumer & Bremm, 2021; Stočić, 2015). The school policy of parental choice, according to which parents can freely choose their children's school regardless of their place of residence, could contribute to reducing such inequalities. Nevertheless, secondary school types – in Hamburg, from grade 5 onwards, a distinction is made between two types of general education schools with different graduation options – are distributed in a striking manner depending on the socioeconomic status of the social environment.

This article addresses a gap in research by focusing on the institutional framework conditions that create socially unequal (educational) spaces (Fernandez & Zehetner, 2025), shifting attention away from individual actors, such as parents or students towards the actions of educational policy actors. The analysis focuses on the question of what influence the right to free school choice has or may have on the socio-spatial distribution of students across different types of secondary schools. Methodologically, the article combines a policy-analytical evaluation of the legal basis for parental choice in Hamburg with a socio-spatial analysis of the school structure. Hamburg is suitable for this, as the city publishes data on schools in the Regional Education Atlas (https://geoportal-hamburg.de/bildungsatlas/) and status indices for social spaces in the annual Social Monitor (BSW Hamburg, 2024) on a small scale, even within district boundaries. In addition, each school in Hamburg is assigned a school social index, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the social composition of the students. These data sets make it possible to examine the distribution of school types and their embedding in different socio-spatial contexts and to discuss the effectiveness of parental choice. A particular focus is placed on the west and southeast of Hamburg, where extreme socioeconomic differences between residents are visible despite short geographical distance. By analysing the interplay of institutional regulations, socio-spatial structure, and school type distribution, it highlights the possibilities and limitations of individual freedom of choice in a socially unequal urban context and how spaces are (re)produced through social actions thus contributes to the debate on the role of school policy control instruments in the reproduction of inequalities.

The literature on the consequences of school composition has a long tradition, particularly in Anglo-Saxon contexts, and one of the main strands of research has focused on its impact on students’ learning outcomes. However, the dynamics underlying the effects of segregation on school performance and levels of learning remain complex (Baysu and de Valk 2012; Dronkers et al. 2011). Several factors may be involved, including peer-group influence, teaching practices, and management processes related to school organization (van Ewijk et al. 2010; Thrupp and Lauder 2006).

Most existing research focuses on the role of peers (Borgen 2023; Caponera and Losito 2016), but teachers and class organization may be equally important in shaping the consequences of segregation. Teachers may respond to the composition of the student intake by reallocating time, adapting the pace of instruction, and adjusting expectations (Boone et al. 2018; Kalogrides et al. 2013). With regard to school organization, relevant dynamics include teacher recruitment, retention, and turnover; the quality and experience of the teaching staff; the curricular offer; the educational framework; and the working climate (van Ewijk et al. 2010; Scafidi et al. 2007).

Focusing on the case of Milan, this contribution has two main aims. First, it examines the extent to which the socio-economic and ethnic composition of classes affects students’ achievement in standardized tests in Reading and Mathematics. Drawing on INVALSI microdata for Grade 8 students, this statistical analysis shows that the concentration of disadvantaged students – particularly those from low socio-economic and/or migrant backgrounds - is associated with lower performance, above and beyond the effect of individual characteristics, including prior achievement.

However, such analysis alone does not fully capture the mechanisms through which class composition affects learning outcomes. Hence, the contribution draws also on qualitative research conducted in two lower secondary schools in peripheral areas of Milan. Data are based on interviews with teachers and principals and explore the challenges associated with managing particularly complex classes where multiple forms of disadvantage tend to concentrate. Schools report a growing presence of students with specific learning needs, which adds to the newly arrived migrant students and students with migrant background. This results in classrooms characterized by multiple and heterogeneous educational needs, requiring different forms of pedagogical support and attention. Teachers describe how this complexity often constrains teaching practices, limiting the range of strategies they can effectively implement and reducing the time available for curriculum development and deeper learning activities. As a consequence, the overall pace of instruction may slow down, potentially affecting the learning opportunities of the entire class.

These processes may also have broader implications. The concentration of disadvantages can negatively affect the reputation of schools, contributing to processes of stigmatization. In turn, this may encourage avoidance behaviors among middle-class families, who may opt for other schools or for more selective curricular tracks within the same school, such as music programs, where students with more favorable socio-economic backgrounds tend to concentrate. These dynamics may further reinforce both territorial and within-school segregation, contributing to the reproduction of educational inequalities.

A considerable body of scientific research has taken shape in recent years that examines how schools influence educational outcomes, against the backdrop of residential segregation, social inequalities, family preferences and individual attributes. This research explores the effects of socio-economic composition, ethnic composition, endogenous peer influence, school climate, the characteristics of teachers and other factors that are believed to influence educational outcomes. This field of inquiry often uses state-of-the-art methodological tools and statistical models to identify aggregate-level and interaction effects, yielding scientific advances with policy implications. The study of school/contextual effects has also become a fruitful area of multidisciplinary research, with debates taking place between sociologists, economists, statisticians, geographers, demographers and education researchers. It is arguably an appropriate time to take stock of these developments and to summarise the results of this research. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic literature review which synthesises the scientific literature of the past decade, with reference to schools in Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. This enables us to go considerably beyond all existing reviews, which are much more limited in scale and scope. Eligibility was confined to studies examining the relationship between the socio-economic or the ethnic composition of schools or classrooms, on the one hand, and either academic performance or choice of upper secondary school, on the other. A four-concept search strategy was used to search Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, EBSCO, Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar, including both quantitative and qualitative studies. The first concept identifies the context (secondary schools), while the second confines the search to studies which focus on school composition; the third describes the specific form of composition (socio-economic or ethnic) and the fourth captures the main outcome variable (performance or choice of upper secondary school). The resulting 12,462 records were subjected to rapid screening in order to exclude obviously ineligible studies, and the remaining 6,519 publications were blind screened in parallel on title and abstract by at least two researchers using the Rayyan software system, and any relevant documents were then screened on their full text. Disagreements were resolved through discussion, based on a close examination of the records in question. We then carried out data extraction and constructed a data extraction sheet which summarises the key characteristics of the 232 studies identified as relevant. A narrative synthesis of the research results was completed, summarising the principal findings of the included studies using headings developed from the thematic analysis of eligible research reports.