On the wrong track? Perceived track mismatch among ethnic minority and majority students in the German education system

This paper explores why ethnic minority students are more likely than majority students to believe that they should attend a higher educational track. Based on a survey of seventh-grade students in Germany, we examine two explanations for this “perception gap.” First, minority students may be more likely than majority students to be placed in a track that is too low for them (“exposure” to unfair treatment). Second, minority students, who are more frequently enrolled in the lowest educational tracks and are often the children of highly ambitious parents, may feel a greater need to attribute limited educational success to unfair treatment in order to protect their self-esteem (“ex-post rationalization of a lack of success”). We find little evidence for the “exposure" mechanism. Instead, the “perception gap” between majority and minority students largely reflects their more frequent enrollment in the lowest, stigmatized track of the education system and their parents' high, unmet educational aspirations. • Students’ perceptions of fairness in school have received little attention in the literature on educational inequality. • Ethnic minority seventh-graders feel more likely than majority students to be unfairly assigned to a lower educational track. • For minority students, this perception is less closely related to indicators of actual unfair treatment than for majority students. • Minority students’ perceptions of unfair treatment reflect their enrollment in the lowest tracks of the education system and their parents’ high and unmet educational aspirations.