Making Their Mark : The Effects of Neighbourhood and Upper Secondary School on Educational Achievement

This study contributes to the literature on neighbourhood and school effects on individual educational outcomes by asking whether and to what extent adolescent educational achievement in metropolitan Sweden is determined by neighbourhood and upper secondary school characteristics net of observed individual-level background attributes. Extensive cross-classified multilevel regression analyses of comprehensive leaving certificate data for around 26,000 upper secondary school students show that characteristics attributable to upper secondary schools matter much more for the variability in achievement than do neighbourhoods. There are also indications of contextual effects of neighbour and schoolmate characteristics that operate above and beyond the impact of observed individual-level background attributes. Since the estimated effects of concentrations of (dis)advantage and immigrant density at neighbourhood and school level point in different directions, this study demonstrates the benefits of analysing the effects of neighbourhood and school on individual educational outcomes at the same time