Inequality in education

During the last few decades, schools in Europe have transformed as the number of minority students has increased in proportion. Some education systems achieve quality and equity together. Other European education systems achieve quality at the expense of equity. There are also a number of European education systems that achieve insufficient quality and efficiency. This situation, in which education systems achieve neither quality nor equity, is a cause for serious concern. The high dropout problem, concentrated especially in heavily minority urban schools, is another problem. Educational inequality is linked to socioeconomic status, and increasingly to language skills. Educational policies that leave some groups of students behind lead to social fragmentation and would risk social cleavages. This volume contains, inter alia, best practices and policy recommendations how to fight these problems which affect many educational systems in Europe and worldwide.