Mentoring improves educational outcomes for socially disadvantaged children

Socio-economic status continues to have a strong influence on children’s educational outcomes in Germany, according to a recent study by the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne. The research team, consisting of Professor Pia Pinger (University of Cologne), Professor Armin Falk (University of Bonn), and Professor Fabian Kosse (University of Würzburg), found that parents’ socio-economic status plays a major role in the choice of a secondary school. In most of Germany's federal states, parents make this decision at the end of fourth grade, after receiving a recommendation from the elementary school. The results of the study “Mentoring and Schooling Decisions: Causal Evidence” have been published in the Journal of Political Economy.

Parents’ socio-economic status is decisive

The study shows that children from less privileged families are approximately one third less likely to enter the high track in secondary school that qualifies for university studies (German Abitur) than their peers from better-off households. Even when performance levels are the same, a gap of around 22 percentage points remains.

“Our findings clearly show how strongly social background continues to determine educational trajectories,” explains Pia Pinger, Professor for Economics at the University of Cologne and member of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute. “Equal opportunity is still not a reality in the German education system.”

The data used in the study comes from the Bonn Family Panel, which was carried out by the University of Bonn in collaboration with an external agency. Over a period of seven years, it followed more than 700 families with children born between 2002 and 2004 in the Cologne-Bonn area. To participate in the study, all families responded to an initial letter and returned a questionnaire on the socioeconomic situation of their household. They also had to express their interest in participating in the mentoring programme and the accompanying interviews. The data includes interviews with the children and their families, schooling-related information, and details on the tracking-related decision-making process. Using this data, the research team not only examined the gap in transition to secondary school, but also the effect of a childhood intervention programme such as mentoring.

Mentoring programme has long-term benefits for children’s educational trajectories

They found that mentoring programmes improve equality of opportunity in a both enduring and scalable way.

212 randomly selected second- and third-grade elementary school children from families with low socio-economic status took part in a mentoring programme called “Balu und Du”. Over the course of a year, volunteer mentors – typically university students – met with the children to promote their psycho-social development and broaden their personal horizons through joint activities. Among the children who were randomly selected for the mentoring programme, the probability of entering the high track in secondary school increased by 11 percentage points. This effect persisted even five years after the change of school.

“The transition from elementary school to secondary school has a decisive influence on a child’s future educational and professional trajectory,” Pinger concludes. “Mentoring provides children with role models and encourages their parents to consider a high track education.”