What's the picture after primary school, when it comes to highest level secondary schools?
Krüger: One general result of education research is that education inequality still very much exists when it comes to the move to the highest level of secondary schools. There are also major differences between urban and rural regions. A highest level secondary school in a rural location has no competitors as the next equivalent school is some distance away. International schools, on the other hand, always need to be accessible from a major city to attract the children of internationally mobile management-level parents. In the eastern part of Germany, this applies to very few cities.

Could you describe one of the urban regions you examined?
Helsper: The major city we chose in the “old Länder”, the federal states that used to be West Germany, has a well-balanced school landscape with approx. 20 highest level secondary schools, an international school, a few comprehensives and a Waldorf school. The perspective of the principals in this area is very interesting: They differentiate their student body along a metropolitan railway train line that roughly divides the city into more privileged and less privileged districts. Students who live on one side of this imaginary line are perceived as not suitable for the highest level of secondary school. Those who live on the other side of this line apparently offer everything principals and teachers dream of. In their opinion, the "student material" is therefore distributed unequally.

Is that also the case in Germany's “new Länder”, the federal states that used to be the GDR?
Helsper: The situation is different: Due to school closures and mergers with other schools, no highest level secondary school has to worry about its continued existence. In return, it seems that they have to compete more for students. Special and private highest level secondary schools have selection procedures in place that are aimed at gaining the best pupils for these demanding schools. In the worst case, other schools then perceive themselves as a "highest level secondary school for the left-overs" or a "highest level secondary school for poor people". This proves how strongly established the hierarchies between the various highest level secondary schools are, even without the official school rankings; the fact that all highest level secondary schools are actually already privileged education institutions, compared to the lower level secondary schools, is totally disregarded.

How do the schools deal with this situation?
Krüger: Internationalisation will become a new quality standard; this applies to the entire education system but above all to the universities and universities of applied science. All secondary and higher education establishments are under increasing pressure to endeavour to offer exchange programmes, partnerships with schools in interesting locations, special educational focuses and language lessons taught by native speakers. The literature refers to this as double internationalisation. One side of this coin could be described as privileged internationalisation. The other side is the kind of internationalisation that should apparently be avoided at all costs, for example schools with a high percentage of children from an immigrant background. For Berlin, there are statistics available for primary schools as well as highest level secondary schools regarding the proportion of students with an immigrant background.

What consequences does this have for the concept of inclusion?
Helsper: The debate on increasing educational equality, which also includes inclusion, is extremely significant. However, in that sense, the schools we are examining don't have much to do with this, as they are inherently exclusive and, if at all, at the most accept children with physical disabilities, as is the case in the Christian highest level secondary schools, for instance. Inclusion tends to be promoted more by those schools that already have to cope with numerous educational challenges due to the nature of their student body, anyway.

So far, we have not mentioned one group at all...
Krüger: The students.

...are the differences between the schools also apparent in the students?
Krüger: Certainly. This is extremely apparent at the exclusive highest level secondary schools. The students there use their school to upgrade themselves and to distance themselves from others even if they are not top-performing. In international schools, there are also internal distinctions: For example between those who represent the internationally mobile clientele and the children of rich German parents who want to give their children a better chance of obtaining an international leaving certificate and the opportunity to study at an international elite university and are willing to pay a lot for this.

In what other ways are these developments apparent?
Helsper: There seems to be a trend towards early segregation: Even at the primary school stage, there are schools with an international, religious or progressive educational focus, for example. The respective highest level secondary schools or also newly established state secondary schools that do not distinguish between the different levels of secondary education on the basis of aptitude recruit their students primarily from these schools and the social groups who choose them.

Which way will the German education system go in future?
Helsper: I am now leaving the territory of sound science by stating: There is a clear trend toward a two-tier education system, as opposed to the current system here in Germany, which is a secondary school education system that is divided into three achievement levels. The lowest level secondary schools will soon be abolished, even those who have so far managed to survive. Students at the next highest level will also eventually be able to go to gain the certificate they need to be accepted for university, a privilege currently enjoyed only by students who successfully graduate from the highest level of the three types of secondary school. This development harbours the chance of more educational equality. However, it can also, as we see in our research, lead to stricter differentiation in the higher education area so that in parallel, new educational hierarchies might develop.