The paper deals with transitions and school choices in times of educational change. In 2009, a school reform process, developed by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, modified partially the general lower secondary school. In the current stage of the implementation of the new school model within the Austrian school system, parents and student can choose between three school forms: the academic lower secondary school, the general lower secondary school and the “New-Middle-School”. The overall goal of the “New-Middle-School” introduced in Austria is to limit marginalizing processes, and to improve transitions and trajectories within an inclusive school setting.

Boudon (1974), as representative of the Rational Choice Theory, focuses on selection decisions in the education system and analyzed origin-specific differences in the education decision. In the 1970s he unfolded the micro-sociological approach, showing a correlation between educational inequality and social background. According to his theory of education, inequalities arise partly because of individual educational decisions that are made by parents or students in an institutional context. This decision is based on social stratum and the performance of the child. Here, the focus is on the preservation of the current social status. A possible reason for this might be that the decisions result from cost benefit analyses of alternative education (c.f. Maaz & Nagy, 2010).

There is much empirical support for the theory: In Austria, “theoretically, the performance of students governs their allocation to the different types of secondary school; however, in practice there are massive social and regional aspects involved in this allocation” (Geppert, Bauer-Hofmann & Hopmann, 2012, p. 14), but the decision to transfer to academic secondary school mainly concerns children “who come from families with a high socio-economic status, living in urban centers” (Eder, 2009, p. 50). The education of parents seems particularly significant (Jacob & Tieben, 2010; Jonkmann, Maaz, Neumann & Gresch, 2010; Tiedemann & Billmann-Mahecha, 2007) for education intentions. Degree and success are largely dependent on parental educational level and regional conditions (Ditton, 2007; Ditton & Krüsken, 2006; Hillmert, 2007; Jonkmann et al, 2010; Paulus & Blossfeld, 2007; Strand, 1997). The opportunities after secondary one are an important criterion for educationally active parents.

Children from more privileged layers are thus sent to more "challenging" schools, while children from disadvantaged backgrounds have to make great efforts to be recommended for academic secondary school.

Can the New-Middle-School change these differences?

The question to be investigated is: What are reasons for attending either the academic secondary school or the New-Middle-School? Related to this research question, three hypotheses are built:

⋅ Hypothesis 1: There are differences concerning the importance of school choice motives depending on the cohort of data collection. (New-Middle-Schools aim to be a “school for all“ and aim at gaining an image of being able to lead most students into higher – vocational- education)

⋅ Hypothesis 2: There are differences in school choice motives depending on the type of school students attend after primary school.

⋅ Hypothesis 3: There are different motives for school choice depending on the type of school students attend after primary school and on the cohort of data collection.

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