Educational behaviour in institutional arrangements: Visited school type and parent's educational aspirations at the end of the lower secondary school

In the German school system a scientifically widely ignored process of modernization took place. It can be described as disconnection of visited school type and aspired graduation at the end of the lower secondary school. These so called "options of disconnection" are obviously used more often than the change of school type and possibly contribute better for a compensation of suboptimal school decisions. In this context the varying institutional arrangements (e.g., restriction of access) of the German states are to be considered, particularly for the upgrading at the Hauptschule (less prestigious level of secondary school). Based on the theory of rational choice, the article investigates the impact of social origin, ethnicity and gender on the parent's aspired graduation under the different opportunity structures of German federal states. For the analysis the national PISA 2000 - data are used. The results show that parent's desired graduation is strongly associated with social background and ethnicity. Additionally, the effects of social origin vary by institutional arrangements: In federal states characterized by a wider institutional opening lower status parents aspire more often towards an upgraded certificate for their offspring than in states characterized by more restrictive conditions.