This paper argues that school grades cannot be interpreted solely as a reward for a given school performance, since they also reflect teachers' ratings of pupils. Grades therefore contain valuable information about pupils' own - usually unknown - ability. The incorporated assessment in grade...

Why are talented pupils who come from low-status families reluctant to choose knowledge-intensive educational routes? Throughout this paper we try to answer this question, employing the framework of sociological rational choice theory. Our argumentation is that (1) the perception of one's own...