Abstract: Inequality of opportunity strikes when two children with the same abilities and academic performance are sent to different quality schools because their parents differ in socio-economic status. Based on a novel dataset for Germany, we demonstrate that children are significantly less likely to enter the highest quality school track if they come from low socio-economic status (SES) families, even after conditioning on a rich set of ability and performance measures. We then provide causal evidence that a low-intensity mentoring program can reduce inequality of opportunity and boost children’s education outcomes. Low SES children, who were randomly assigned to a mentor for the duration of one year, are 20 percent more likely to enter the high track in grade 5. The effect is particularly pronounced among males and young, and is driven by a change in parental decision-making as well as teacher recommendations.

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