The Opportunity Monitor by ifo and “A Heart for Children”

Tasks and aims of the project

To what extent do the educational opportunities of children in Germany depend on their family background? This project, which the ifo Center for the Economics of Education conducts on behalf of the charity “A Heart for Children”, aims to document the extent of equality of educational opportunity in Germany. To this end, the Opportunity Monitor measures to what extent the probability that a child attends an academic-track school depends on various dimensions of socioeconomic background.

Results

The results of the Opportunity Monitor show a strong inequality of educational opportunities in Germany: For example, the probability of attending an academic-track school is 21.5% for a child growing up with a single parent without a university entrance qualification who is in the lowest income quartile and has a migration background. By contrast, it is 80.3% for a child growing up with two parents with a university entrance qualification who are in the highest income quartile and do not have a migration background. The educational background of the parents, but also income and single-parent status are especially relevant for the probability of attending an academic-track school. By contrast, the migration background has less of an effect after taking the other characteristics into account.