Discussion: “Berlin school sorting” by Bernd Beber, Macartan Humphreys, Lennard Naumann
EPSA 2025
Violeta Haas
May 22, 2025
Overview
- Situate the Case
- Catchment Zone System
- Re-zoning and Gerrymandering
- Foreign Language Background
- 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
- existing friendships with other children would be adversely affected if the child attended the school in the catchment area;
- valid need for a special profile (e.g. special language program) or caring program which is only promoted at another school;
- 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
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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.