Social space and educational outcomes in Athens

Abstract

This paper examines whether the Athenian schools reflect and/or reproduce the social structures that surround them. Methodology consists in the classification of public high schools in terms of educational outcomes and its cross-reference with inequalities observed in their spatial, socio-professional and educational environment. Educational achievement is measured by performance in the National Admissions Examination to Tertiary education. We then aggregate the individual student records at the level of each school in order to demonstrate how their variation may be related to social characteristics. Using a GIS application and multivariate correspondence analysis statistics we produced an indicator for each school’s surrounding socioeconomic and educational profile. This analysis validated the lack of ‘democratization’ in the Athenian educational system. Performance appears essentially related to the occupational scale and the educational attainment whilst ethnic composition and living standards seem to play an important role.

Keywords

• education
• residential segregation
• school segregation
• Athens