The policy response to educational inequalities

The chapter examines policies that may help combating educational inequalities in the competences achieved (i.e. quality of education). Using cross-sectional data the chapter demonstrates a correlation between institutional characteristics of educational systems and student achievement, including early tracking, vocational orientation, and forms of national standardisation. Looking at schooling the chapter adopts a longitudinal approach to educational policies. Using newly collected data, the chapter describes various policies to combating inequality in educational attainment, both in terms of distributions and in terms of inequality of educational opportunity by social groups. The chapter considers the relationships between educational policies, educational distributions and income inequality. EU-SILC data on educational and earnings attainment with comparative student achievement data since from the 1960s, allows examining to what extent educational policies affect quality and quantity of education, and how these educational distributions relate to the level of income inequality. The chapter discusses the potential opposition to the implementation of these policies.