This paper focuses on ability grouping in middle school as an important mechanism enabling students with privileged social backgrounds to increase their likelihood of enrollment in the most selective and prestigious high school programs, thus paving the way to higher academic degrees and more lucrative occupations. Using data from Israeli national standardized tests administered in primary and middle schools and matriculation data from the end of high school, we demonstrate the crucial role played by middle school ability grouping in transforming socioeconomic advantage into educational advantage. We thus contribute to a growing body of research that aims at enhancing our understanding of mechanisms of educational tracking in comprehensive systems that rely on complex and nuanced types of formal and informal within-school curricular differentiation.

本文将中学的能力分组作为一种重要机制，使具有特权社会背景的学生能够增加他们进入最具选择性和声望的高中课程的可能性，从而为获得更高的学位和更有利可图的职业铺平道路。使用以色列国家中小学标准化考试的数据和高中毕业的预科数据，我们证明了中学能力分组在将社会经济优势转化为教育优势方面发挥的关键作用。