Most upper-secondary schools in Norway are so-called combined schools, where vocational and general departments exist side by side. This paper investigates whether school characteristics affect academic students' performance. Academic performance is shown to deteriorate when the number of departments increases. There is an optimal department size,…

Some of the structural barriers to the upward educational mobility of rural young people in Norway and the United States wereexplored in this study. Inquiry was focused on the degree to which perceived parental interest, academic performance in school, and social class origin influence plans for further academic education. The study population was…