Balancing School Choice and Equity
An International Perspective Based on Pisa
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Many countries are struggling to reconcile greater flexibility in school choice with the need to ensure quality, equity and coherence in their school systems. This report provides an international perspective on issues related to school choice, especially how certain aspects of school-choice policies may be associated with sorting students into different schools. A key question fuelling the school-choice debate is whether greater competition among schools results in more sorting of students by ability or socio-economic status. At the macro level, school segregation can deprive children of opportunities to learn, play and communicate with other children from different social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which can, in turn, threaten social cohesion. The report draws a comprehensive picture of school segregation, using a variety of indicators in order to account for the diversity of the processes by which students are allocated to schools.
Executive Summary
This report documents the changes in school enrolment that have recently occurred in the countries that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It questions whether school-choice policies may have consequences on the sorting of students, by both ability and socio-economic status, and whether they may be associated with both the effectiveness and equity of education systems.