Social Status and Selection of Candidates to Secondary Schools and Universities

The following article is devoted to educational ineąualities in Poland as viewed over the course of time. Educational ineąualities can be measured in terms of effect the of social origin on the selection of students to the first and second threshold of education, i.e. when moving from primary to secondary school, and from secondary school to university. The results of various analyses conducted so far point to the especially decisive role of social origin at the first threshold (primary to secondary school). Moreover, this effect has been shown to be persistent over time. However, according to my analyses, the effect of social origin on the two educational thresholds rose dramatically in the 1990's and then fall to the level present before transformation. This analysis is based on data from research carried out on national samples from 1982 to 2002 in Poland.