In Germany, teachers give a recommendation on the type of school a student should attend after primary school. In some federal states, access to a more demanding school type is restricted to students holding an appropriate recommendation. In a first step, we discuss different theories and approaches as to why a student's social origin or migration background has an impact on the recommendation, irrespective of school performance. Then we test different hypotheses using data of a combined teacher, student, and parent survey, conducted from the 3 rd grade on in Bavaria and Hessen. Overall, we have information on 1.644 students and 147 teachers. We find strong relationships between social origin and school recommendations as teachers take parents' educational aspirations into account. Students' positive school behavior has a positive impact on getting a recommendation for a higher school type; however, the influence of parents' socioeconomic status remains. The data show no evidence for children with migration backgrounds facing greater risks of receiving lower recommendations than other children-irrespective of their family language.

Ethnic discrimination Social inequality Educational transitions Teacher bias

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