Educational Expectations and Aspirations of Italian Students. The Role of Context

Alessandra Minello, Università Bocconi

This paper investigates contextual effects on the individual educational expectations and aspirations of Italian students attending middle school. I consider both secondary school track expectations and college aspirations as indicators of educational preferences in the short and long run. Educational expectations and aspirations are good predictor of future educational achievement. Data come from ITAGEN survey (2005-2006 school year) and from official information from the Italian Minister of Education. Attending a school with a high share of foreigners has no impact on realistic expectations of Italian students, but it leads to a reduction of their own long term educational aspirations. Moreover, students attending schools where there is higher level of integration (measured as percentage of Italian students with immigrant friends) are more prone to have high short term educational expectations.