Educational pathways to status-breaking success in Europe. Determinants of success and the role of educational system across six Eu-areas countries

This study investigates the determinants of status-breaking performance – defined as academic achievement exceeding socioeconomic predictions – across six European educational systems (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom), using PISA 2022 microdata. Employing a residual-based operationalization, we identify status breakers and analyze their determinants through nested logistic regressions and multilevel models. Findings reveal that gender and grade repetition consistently shape overperformance probabilities across all contexts, while the effect of migration background varies by country. Crucially, school-level factors – particularly socioeconomic composition and educational track – emerge as dominant predictors in selective, tracked systems, where between-school variance accounts for over 60%–70% of total variance. In contrast, Finland’s comprehensive system privileges individual-level determinants. These results demonstrate that status-breaking is not merely an individual achievement but a structurally conditioned outcome, with profound implications for equity-oriented educational policy across heterogeneous European systems.