Discussion: “Berlin school sorting” by Bernd Beber, Macartan Humphreys, Lennard Naumann

EPSA 2025

Violeta Haas

May 22, 2025

Overview

  1. Situate the Case
  2. Catchment Zone System
  3. Re-zoning and Gerrymandering
  4. Foreign Language Background
  5. Address falsifications

1. Situate the Case

Berlin is a context with…

  • a strong catchment zone system,
  • fewer (official) school choice options than in other cities,
    • 90% of zones only contain one public school (Mitte = 3.19),
  • small (but growing) share of private schools and,
  • stable policy structures.

2. Catchment Zone System

``Short legs, short routes’’
(Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie, 2018, p. 3, own translation).

Conditions for transfers

  1. existing friendships with other children would be adversely affected if the child attended the school in the catchment area;
  2. valid need for a special profile (e.g. special language program) or caring program which is only promoted at another school;
  3. attending another school would significantly ease after-school care of the child.

2. Re-zoning and Gerrymandering

In Germany, zones’ boundaries are adjusted to…

  • respond to changes in child population distribution
  • avoid over- and underconcentration at certain schools
  • adress demographic shifts from:
    • in-/outflux of families
    • changes in birth rates within catchment zones

2. Re-zoning and Gerrymandering


In the US, boundaries are the outcome of…

  • political lobbying by privileged schools and parents
  • school catchment areas resemble gerrymandered districts (Richards, 2017)

Less of a problem in Germany, but (Dabisch, 2023)…

  • schools dynamically adapt capacity and,
  • influence bounderies

2. Foreign Language Background


Home‑language mix among migrant families

Only 31.5 % of migrant‑background families speak exclusively non‑German at home, meaning 68.5 % use some German (PISA‑E sample)

2. Foreign Language Background

Share of German‑speaking household differs by origin (Vief, 2024).

2. Foreign Language Background


No standadized recording

  • Berlin schools lack a standardised method for recording non‑German‑language indicator.
  • Some rely on parent/student self‑report, some on teacher assessment (Ludwig 2014).
  • Bi-lingual students, are assigned one language only

3. Address falsifications


Other, (illegal) ways to school choice:

  • Some parents submit a false address in preferred catchment zone.
  • Usually trusted family or close friends who lend their address and accept the risk of detection and fines (André‑Bechely 2013; Noreisch 2007a, 2007b; Bulman 2004).

4. Smaller points

  • How many parents request a school change?
  • What’s it for taking ilegal path?
  • What’s it to opt out to private schools?
  • Are there other ways parents assess quality? (chat-groups, etc.)
  • Possible to link siblings?

Vief, Robert (2024). Integrated neighborhoods, polarized schools. The patterns of residential and school segregation in Berlin, Germany. Doctoral Thesis. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.