The Reputation of Primary Schools—Rumours with Consequences for Segregation

Abstract In contexts like Germany where no information on the quality of schools is publicly available, school reputations are particularly important for school choice. Reputations can be understood as discursively generated ‘rumours’ conveying personal opinions and experiences often revolving around school composition. Taking up previous research, the article uses a mixed‐methods design to investigate how the reputations of primary schools are established in discourses in a German neighbourhood in North Rhine‐Westphalia and what role they play in school choice. It becomes clear that, in contrast to previous studies, the reputations of the local schools generally reflect their composition. Even if this does not mean that reliable conclusions about a school's quality can actually be drawn from it, reputation is a very important school selection criterion across all social groups. Nevertheless, perceptions of individual primary schools vary in line with parents' educational qualifications, contributing to school segregation.