Educational stratification in Italy: Reforms, expansion, and equality of opportunity

Between the 1950s and early 1980s, Italian education expanded rapidly. During the 1960s the educational system was reformed in two important respects. First, in 1963, the unified middle school was established and compulsory schooling was extended to the age of 14. Second, in 1961 and 1969 access to universities was progressively liberalized, enabling students in all upper-secondary tracks, including the vocational colleges (istitutiprofessionali) attended primarily by the working classes, to sit for the matriculation (maturità) examinations and to continue to university. The reform was expected to reduce class inequality in university attendance by raising the chances of working-class students participating in this level of education. Previous research however (Cobalti and Schizzerotto, 1993, 1994) found little change in class inequalities in educational attainment. Using their data, we re-evaluate Cobalti and Schizzerotto's conclusions, and find declining effects of father's education on the odds of completing the lower levels of the educational hierarchy. The declining effects carried-over slightly to the (unconditional) odds of obtaining the maturit6 diploma but did not contribute to equalization of the odds of university attendance. We consider the extent to which the reforms affected these changes and also study changes in gender and regional inequality of educational opportunity.