Egalitarization and Elitization of High Schools

Referring recently developed approach in the research on educational inequalities – the horizontal perspective, I examined how the increasing enrollment rates influence the processes of social selection within secondary schools. Using data from a survey conducted among students of general secondary, specialized secondary and technical schools in Białystok I examine how two important ascribed factors (social background and gender) affects selection between types of schools and fields of study. The analyses show that educational expansion leads to two processes which tend to balance each other out, resulting in persistent inequalities: equalization in access to general secondary schools weakens the stratification and differentiation of educational institutions magnifies it.