Educational Disadvantage and Access to the Best Universities in Korea

In Korea, the type of university that an individual student enters is largely determined by his or her performance on the national standardized aptitude test implemented by the Korean government. By investigating the factors that determine individual students' performance on this exam, we seek to identify the factors that determine their university placement. For this study, we use Korean Education and Employment Panel (KEEP) data (2004-2009). We use multivariate regression models to investigate factors affecting student performance on Korea's national standardized exam for college entrance and describe our extensive findings in this article. Our ultimate conclusion is that educational disadvantage stemming from socioeconomic factors is growing. That is, Korean education is moving in the wrong direction as far as educational equity is concerned. Based on our observations above, we make several suggestions for parents, guardians, teachers, schools, and educational policymakers to reverse this disturbing trend. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]