Ethnic Inequalities in Educational Success

The project "Ethnic Differences in Education", originally initiated by the National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), aimed to examine mechanisms and conditions leading to the development of ethnic differences in educational participation, performance and attainment and at uncovering fields that had previously not been investigated. This investigation intended to document the state of scientifically verifiable interconnections for public and political debate and to thus provide sufficiently strong evidence of existing causal effects for future measures. The bulk of the work focused on the documentation of sound scientific evidence in this area, the identification of previously open fields, a number of public controversies, and proof of the effectiveness of specific measures, for example, the impact of educational systems, the effects of pre-school attendance, social and ethnic concentrations or specific supportive measures, such as linguistic support programmes, summer schools or "multicultural" programmes.

Moreover, the project led to the development of a theoretical model that in turn provided a basis for a number of empirical analyses and for several publications on the concrete topic as well as on the area of research in general. Based on the results of the project, Claudia Diehl, Christian Hunkler, and Cornelia Kristen have edited the book "Ethnische Ungleichheiten im Bildungsverlauf – Mechanismen, Befunde, Debatten".