Socioeconomic Segregation in Secondary Schools: An International Approach Using PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)

• In Event: 72.031 - International Perspectives on Socioeconomic Segregation Between and Within Schools

Abstract

Context and Relevance

Researchers have extensively debated socioeconomic segregation. As in other countries, the concentration of students of similar backgrounds has become an important matter both for academics and policy decision-makers, given its theoretical and empirical effects. The first concern is based on the presence of peer effects. If students’ attainment is affected by the characteristics of their peers, then the distribution of pupils across schools becomes a critical factor to assure equity and avoid increasing inequality in the performance of students with different socioeconomic backgrounds (Wilkinson, 2002). A second concern is related to civic education. From this perspective, schools are understood as a place where students can complement their family experience by being in contact with students from different cultural and social backgrounds, broadening their perspectives and values (Brighouse, 2004; Gorard, 2009). Finally, segregation has been described as a threat for increasing social cohesion (Burgess & Centre for Market and Public Organisation, 2005).

The study of segregation from an international comparative perspective has been neglected. Only few studies have analysed the distribution of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and compared how this distribution is associated with institutional features in the educational system or with other types of inequalities regarding educational opportunities. The main limitations of previous research on this topic are three. First, studies tend to focus in only one part of the population (poorest students) ignoring the segregation of students in schools from more advantaged backgrounds. Second, there is no available research studying how segregation has changed over time during the last 15 years. Third, the few existent international comparisons on the topic are based on outdated data, from almost ten years ago.

Proposed data and methods

This paper will focus on presenting updated information about schools’ socioeconomic segregation trends for a set of developed and developing countries, also analysing how the different levels of school segregation are associated with policies of privatisation, school choice and with other sources of educational inequality. The first section of the paper will include a short discussion on the concept of segregation, a brief literature review on past research showing the importance of segregation explaining educational inequality and lower social cohesion, and the methodological approaches that have been used to measure it in prior research. Section two will discuss the properties of the Root Square Index and its strengths compared to other measures to assess segregation. The third section will analyse how segregation has evolved in developed and developing countries since 2000 to 2012 according to PISA socioeconomic information. Section four will analyse how the measures of segregation are associated with certain policies of privatisation and school choice. In this case most results will be analysed decomposing the segregation according to the share that is due to segregation “between types of schools” (i.e. Private/Public) and the share that it due to “within segregation” (i.e Within the private sector).

Author

• John Jerrim, Institute of Education - University of London