By assessing differentiated upper secondary education with homogeneous student backgrounds, previous studies indicate that a high concentration of students from families of higher socioeconomic status (SES) and a climate of educational expectations for higher educational attainment in schools result in a "hot house" effect that…

This mixed method study analyzes rural migrant children's academic experiences in two Shanghai public schools when 2012 PISA scores were administered. It contributes empirical evidence on how hukou status shapes educational inequality in contemporary China. Since rural migrants are ineligible for the high-stakes test for Shanghai's senior…

This article focuses on observed achievement differentials between indigenous and non-indigenous students in Chile. Using national test score data, it confirms the findings from previous literature that ethnic gaps in educational achievement exist, though they are small and to a large extent explained by family socioeconomic status. The results…

The Education Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education (UPE) states that "by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling." The 2008 midterm Global Monitoring Report claims that "A country's distance from UPE appears most clearly in terms of the net…

Although characterized by repeated ethnic conflicts, Sudan has implemented affirmative action at universities since the 1970s for students coming from war zones and remote areas. The implementation of compensatory measures has been promoted--somehow imposed--by the several peace treaties and by the massive expansion of higher education during the…

The demise of apartheid in 1994 introduced many changes to the social, political, and economic sectors of South Africa with similar changes in the higher education sector. This article offers an integrative review and analysis of higher education policies implemented and legislation passed that significantly impacted the nature of the South…

This article takes a critical comparative approach to examining autonomous schooling in the United States and Australia. Amid the market imperatives currently driving education priorities, its focus is on how autonomy can be mobilized in ways that preserve the integrity of public education. Through reference to key debates and research about…

The rapid decrease in gender inequality in education over the past several decades in China has drawn significant attention in the existing literature. Several factors have been proposed or examined to explain this decrease. However, few studies have examined this topic from the perspective of the changing job structure and skill requirements in…

This vertical case study applies a transitional justice approach to analyzing curricular reform, as intended, enacted, and experienced in the aftermath of Guatemala's civil war. Drawing on ethnographic data, I juxtapose the teaching and learning of historical injustice in one urban and one rural classroom, examining how particular depictions of…

This article analyzes whether school social segregation, derived from policies and practices of both between-school student allocation and within-school streaming, is related to the effectiveness of the Italian education system. Hierarchical regression models are used to set out territorially aggregated factors of social sorting influencing…

Contextualized in China's social change of the past half-century, this article conceptualizes the two aspects of China's rural-urban divide in educational inequality--the household registration system ("hukou") assigns people to a hierarchy, and the rural-urban schooling system institutionalizes unequal resource distribution and diverse…

Educational systems with a high level of tracking and vocational orientation have been shown to improve the allocation of school-leavers in the labor market. However, tracked educational systems are also known to increase inequality of educational opportunity. This presumed trade-off between equality and labor market preparation is clearly rooted…

The aim of the current study is to create a composite statistic of educational quantity and educational quality by combining household data (Demographic and Health Survey) on grade completion and survey data (Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) on cognitive outcomes for 11 African countries: Kenya, Lesotho,…

This article presents a comparative analysis of educational inequality by family background and gender in Taiwan and the Czech Republic, which have both experienced substantial educational expansion in the last half-century under different educational systems. We highlight the specific institutional histories of both countries and examine the role…

Using PISA data for 16 Western OECD countries having comprehensive school systems, we explore the conditions under which the socioeconomic composition of schools affects educational efficiency and equality, to a greater or lesser extent. First, a multilevel analysis is applied to examine and compare the effect of school socioeconomic composition…