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This paper seeks to identify mechanisms that may underpin part of the observed association between class of origin and educational attainment in the Spanish case. In line with a well established strategy in the field of social stratification sociology, we analyze educational attainment as the outcome of a sequence of transitions at each of which a student can drop-out or move on to the next educational level. According to this approach, the paper aims at making three contributions to the study of inequality of educational opportunities by means of an analysis of class inequality in the transition to post-compulsory education in Spain. First, it deals with the impact of social class on academic performance in terms of educational failure in compulsory secondary education.
Second, it monitors the case of an educational �failure� during compulsory education and assesses social class effect on retaking rates after failing. And, third, the paper analyzes class differences in the choice of the academic track (bachillerato) versus the vocational training track (FP) among students who have completed compulsory education on time.
In doing this, it addresses the «diversion thesis» according to which working class students might be diverted from the academic track, with negative consequences for later access to the university, because vocational training offers an attractive short-term option for them.
The empirical analysis is based on data collected from the first quarter of Spanish Labour Force Surveys for the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Our results find some support in the Spanish case for the three hypotheses put forward in the paper: not only significant class differences can be found among students of different social origins in the probability of completing compulsory secondary education on time, but clear class effects can also be seen in retaking rates after failure and in opting for vocational training track after completing secondary compulsory education.
