Reducing inequity is the moral imperative confronting today's educational leaders. Central to reducing inequity is leaders' ability to solve the school-based problems that contribute to it, while building the positive and trusting professional relationships required for teachers to commit to the hard work of improvement. A theory of collaborative…

The conclusion of recent research on the relationship between students' school curriculum and their opportunities to enter higher education has generally been that curricular differentiation is a further dimension of social stratification, and that it has become a mechanism of effectively maintained inequality, in the sense defined by Lucas. The…

This paper proposes a novel approach to investigating the determinants of academic performance: GPA and time to degree. We match administrative records with questionnaire responses for a large set of undergraduate students from one Italian public university. By exploiting reforms implemented by the University, we estimate the effect of the excess…

Drawing on data from a study of the changing landscape for teachers' professional development (PD) in England, this paper addresses the provision of PD for teachers in schools serving high-poverty communities designated as 'Opportunity Areas'. Beginning with critical examination of relationships between teaching quality and social mobility, the…

Language assessments are often framed as benign mechanisms needed to objectively classify people's linguistic proficiencies. In this article, I argue for the need to critically re-examine how purportedly objective institutional language assessments and our participation in them deceptively reify historical and contemporary inequities. I offer the…

This article examines global changes in tracking policies over the post-World War II period. Using a newly constructed quantitative panel data set of 139 countries from 1960 to 2010, I show that a majority of countries around the world have shifted away from sharply tracked institutions at the junior secondary level toward more formally…

This study examines the effect of a reasonably exogenous school equalization reform in Beijing on housing values. Based on sales records of secondhand housing between 2012 and 2016 in four core urban districts in Beijing straddling the reform, the authors find that reform-induced improvement in school quality is on average associated with a 1.7%…

PISA test data from 2000 to today have shown Germany's education system is one of the most inequitable within the OECD, with high correlations between student background and achievement outcomes. Scholars have identified the highly differentiated school structure, which tracks students as young as 10 years old, as a central cause. This scholarship…

It is no secret that disadvantaged children are more likely to struggle in school. For decades now, public policy has focused on how to reduce the achievement gap between poorer students and more-affluent students. Despite numerous reform efforts, these gaps remain virtually unchanged--a fact that is deeply frustrating and also a little confusing.…

Policy discourses in support of school reform in England have linked the objective of raising standards with that of tackling inequality. The assumption that a single policy strategy can tackle both objectives simultaneously is problematic. In this article, I examine issues of equity by studying admissions policy and practice. Drawing on a…

Social movements have initiated both academic programs and disciplines. I present ethnographic data that I gathered during 17 months of fieldwork with the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in southeastern Pará, Brazil, to explore the MST's role in creating agroecological education opportunities. My analysis highlights three factors in…

American society is currently experiencing a surging interest in contemplative practices. The secularization and professionalization of contemplative practices can be seen in the adoption of mindfulness-based approaches in sectors as wide-ranging as technology, nonprofit, and higher education. Amongst all these fields, institutions of higher…

This paper uses Raymond Boudon's model of educational expansion to examine the relationship between education and social mobility, paying particular attention to post-compulsory education--an important site of social differentiation in England. The paper shows how Boudon focuses explicitly on the consequences of educational expansion, and argues…

Despite the national focus on improving transition services and post-school outcomes, many young women with disabilities still face significant barriers in obtaining meaningful employment and pursuing postsecondary education or training. Although recent reports indicate that the gender gap in employment rates may be diminishing, in this same…

A major focus of charter school research has been the potential impact of increased school choice on student sorting by race/ethnicity and socio-economic status. Researchers have argued that charter schools may increase segregation by allowing families to separate into more homogeneous school communities. Yet surprisingly, little attention has…