Educational systems that separate students into curriculum tracks later may place less emphasis on socioeconomic family background and allow individuals’ personal skills and interests more time to manifest. We tested whether postponing tracking from age 11 to 16 results in stronger genetic prediction of education across a population, exploiting the natural experiment of the Finnish comprehensive school reform between 1972 and 1977. The association between polygenic score of education and achieved education strengthened after the reform by one-third among men and those from low-educated families. We observed no evidence for reform effect among women or those from high-educated families. The first cohort experiencing the new system had the strongest increases. From the perspective of genetic prediction, the school reform promoted equality of opportunity and optimal allocation of human capital. The results also suggest that turbulent circumstances, including puberty or ongoing restructuring of institutional practices, may strengthen genetic associations in education.

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稍后将学生分为课程轨道的教育系统可能不太重视社会经济家庭背景，并允许个人的个人技能和兴趣有更多的时间体现。我们利用 1972 年至 1977 年间芬兰综合学校改革的自然实验，测试了将跟踪从 11 岁推迟到 16 岁是否会导致对整个人群的教育进行更强的遗传预测。改革后，教育的多基因分数与所获得的教育之间的关联得到了加强三分之一的男性和来自低教育家庭的人。我们没有观察到改革对女性或来自高学历家庭的女性产生影响的证据。第一批体验新系统的人的增长最为强劲。从基因预测的角度来看，学校改革促进了机会均等和人力资本优化配置。研究结果还表明，动荡的环境，包括青春期或正在进行的机构实践重组，可能会加强教育中的遗传关联。

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