CERGE-EI Project

This project focuses on decision making processes that guide high school application. We are especially interested in the factors which influence which type of school the students aspire to continue their studies in. In Hungary primary school students can choose from among three types of high schools: academic-oriented secondary track (gimnázium), secondary vocational school (szakközépiskola), and vocational school (szakiskola). Out of these options two school types (gimnázium and szakközépiskola) provide an opportunity to take the secondary school leaving examination, which is required for higher education.

This project is based on the Lendület project, which created a longitudinal dataset of primary school students’ network and academic achievement. The Lendület project has been running for five years with annual data collection. Moreover, the Lendület sample is investigating grade 7 students this year, thus secondary school application is a current issue.

The CERGE-EI project is based on the following phases:

1. Structured interviews:  Structured interviews will be conducted with teachers, parents and students in order to gain a deeper insight into the factors which might affect high school application.
2. Vignette method: A quasi-experimental research will be done in order to rank the importance of the revealed factors. In this part hypothetical profiles of students and high schools will be shown for the respondents. The respondent students are asked to evaluate the probability that a hypothetical student with a given profile would apply to with the academic oriented secondary track.
3. Longitudinal survey: Lendület project will include a block about high school application.
4. Experiment: We will evaluate how certain information can modify high school applications. Two types of intervention will be compared. In the first case, we will provide information for every primary student in open class. In the second case, we will only provide information for those who occupy a special position in the network of the class. 

This project is financed by the CERGE-EI Research Competition, which was funded by Global Development Network (GDN) program. More information can be found here: https://www.cerge-ei.cz/gdn/rrc-16. The program is a cooperation between RECENS research group and TÁRKI Zrt. The project is led by Tamás Keller (TÁRKI Zrt and RECENS) and Károly Takács (RECENS); furthermore, Márta Radó and Gabriella Mezei also participate in it.