Children Left Behind: Self-confidence of Pupils in Competitive Early Tracking Environments

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 20. Early Education

Abstract

Early-tracking systems, naturally divides many 5th grade classes into two groups: pupils preparing for exams to enter better schools and everyone else, who do not compete for selective schools. We show that this environment has a detrimental effect on the self- confidence of pupils in mathematics who do not apply for selective schools but have peers in their classroom who do apply. Girls who do not apply experience drop in confidence by 11 percent if they have four applicants among classmates and this effect is even larger if the applicants are successful in admission process. We focus on self-confidence in mathematics as an outcome variable because the literature suggests it is directly linked to pupils’ motivation to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields as well as subsequent educational achievement. Our findings are also relevant to the child psychology literature, which has shown that children around the age of 11 have a high degree of inequality aversion and the presence of more successful peers can induce an increase in negative emotions, such as envy.

Authors

• Miroslava Federicova, CERGE-EI, Prague

• Filip Pertold, CERGE-EI, Prague

• Michael Smith, CERGE-EI, Prague