Effect of Shadow Education in Entering Higher Education: A Focus on Post-Tracking in High Schools

Abstract

This study examined the effects of shadow education on the transition from secondary to higher education using data from the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey. Despite a disadvantageous track in high school, students may use shadow education to improve their grades and join a track that they originally desired. This study explored whether shadow education in high school helps women to recover from a track disadvantage and achieve attainment of higher education. The results showed that women's use of shadow education indeed promoted the attainment of their higher education. Contrarily, for men, it was effective only in overcoming the differences between junior colleges and technical schools and four-year colleges, but not between four-year colleges and branded colleges. Furthermore, the effect of shadow education by high school track was found only for a subset of men. These results suggest that shadow education is effective in promoting educational attainment regardless of high school track, and may also help students recover from disadvantages in high school track.