This study estimates mean and distributional effects of early between-school ability tracking on student achievement. For identification, I exploit heterogeneity in tracking regimes between German federal states. After comprehensive primary school, about 40% of students are selected for the academic track and taught in separate schools in all states. The remaining students, however, are either taught comprehensively or further tracked into two different school forms depending on the state. I estimate the effects of this tracking on students’ mathematics and reading test scores with a difference-in-difference-in-differences estimator to eliminate unobserved heterogeneity in achievement levels and trends between states. I find substantial achievement gains from comprehensive versus tracked schooling at ages 10–12. These average effects are almost entirely driven by low-achievers. I do not find evidence for negative effects of comprehensive schooling on the achievement of higher performing students. My results show that decreasing the degree of tracking in early secondary school can reduce inequality while increasing the efficiency of educational production.

中文翻译：

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在一起更好？跟踪对学生成绩的不同影响*

本研究估计了早期校际能力跟踪对学生成绩的均值和分布影响。为了识别，我利用了德国联邦州之间跟踪制度的异质性。综合小学毕业后，大约 40% 的学生被选入学术轨道，并在所有州的不同学校任教。然而，其余的学生要么接受全面教学，要么根据州的不同进一步追踪到两种不同的学校形式。我使用差异中差异估计器估计这种跟踪对学生数学和阅读考试成绩的影响，以消除状态之间在成绩水平和趋势方面未观察到的异质性。我发现 10-12 岁的综合教育与跟踪教育相比，取得了实质性的成就。这些平均影响几乎完全由低成就者驱动。我没有找到证据表明综合教育对成绩优异的学生的成就有负面影响。我的研究结果表明，降低中学早期跟踪的程度可以减少不平等，同时提高教育生产效率。