How has inequality in educational opportunities evolved in Spain?: Controlling selection bias in educational transition models

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of inequality in educational opportunities over the 20th century in Spain, incorporating more information regarding students’ personal and family characteristics than in other studies. This approach allows us to control for possible selection bias in educational transition models, in which many students are left out of analyses as transitions are made to higher levels of education, leading to results that cannot be extrapolated to the general population. A survey from Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) is used along with logistical regression models. Controlling for this bias, it is found that inequalities in educational opportunities have remained constant, although inequality in finishing obligatory education among agricultural classes decreased from the middle of the century, possibly the result of the universalisation of obligatory education.