Schools as Differential Environments for Students’ Development: How Tracking and School Composition Affect Students’ Transition After the End of Compulsory Education

Abstract Tracking leads to differential developmental environments resulting in educational inequalities. We investigated whether tracking and school composition affect students’ transition post-compulsory education. Based on data of two Swiss school-leavers’ cohorts (2000/2016), multilevel analyses show that the social achievement-related track affiliation predict transitions beyond individual characteristics. Compositional effects were part differentially predictive depending affiliation.