Ethnic Segregation Between School Types in Multi-tiered School Systems and Two-tiered Systems Analyses with Respect to School Structural Reforms in Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg

In 2009/2010 (Bremen) and 2010/2011 (Berlin and Hamburg), the three German city-states changed their school systems from ones including several non-academic school types to two-tiered school systems involving only academic schools, i.e., the Gymnasium, and comprehensive schools. Based on data from the national assessment studies carried out by the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB) in 2009 and 2015, the present study examines differences in school type attendance between immigrant and non-immigrant students and the extent to which these differences changed with the school structural reforms. The results reveal that immigrant students were initially overrepresented at the lower-level school types (Hauptschulen and Realschulen) and then, after the reforms, at the comprehensive schools. In Berlin and Bremen, ethnic segregation between school types decreased; in Hamburg, no significant change was observed. However, after differences in performance and socioeconomic status are accounted for, the results show that immigrant students attend Gymnasium more often than non-immigrant students. In Berlin and Bremen, this tendency was observed only in the two-tiered systems and may have contributed to the decrease in segregation.