The effects of ethnicity and social class on high school attendance / השפעת המוצא העדתי והמעמד החברתי על ההתמדה בלימודים בחינוך העל-יסודי

This study employs Boudon's exponential model of growing inequality in educational opportunities to the examination of attendance rates in Israeli high schools. Since Israeli high schools were found to be sponsorship-oriented on the basis of the differential tracking of ethnic groups, we use Boudon's model (a) to examine the exponential effects of ethnicity on school attendance rates, (b) to assess the independent effects of ethnicity and social class on these rates, and (c) to compare these effects across the academic and the vocational tracks. The analysis, based mainly on data pertaining to all high school students of the 1982 graduating class, shows that ethnicity affects exponentially the attendance rates between the junior and senior years. However, the net effects of social class are larger than those of ethnicity. Comparison of the tracks reveals separate processes of inequality. While the exponential effect of social class is mainly pronounced in the academic track, the effect of ethnicity, though lower in general, is found only in the vocational track. These differences may result from the different emphasis on selectivity of the two tracks, and the different composition of students. These findings point to the need to review sponsorship policies. The tendency of the less prestigious vocational track toward equality may be considered a token, paid by a Western democratic society for the right to maintain sponsored mobility through the selective academic track.