The effect of a specialized versus a general upper-secondary school curriculum on students’ performance and inequality
Countries differ in their academic upper-secondary school systems whereby some require their students to choose a specialization track from a set of areas – typically natural sciences, economic sciences, or humanities – and follow that specialization for the course of their upper secondary education years whereas, by contrast, others follow a general curriculum in which students are not required to follow a single specialization and thus, may receive a more general education. This research estimates the possible effects on students’ achievement of these institutional differences.