Education Policy and Equality: Some Evidence from Europe

• Published in: Social science quarterly 1999-09, Vol.80 (3), p.437-456
• Main Authors: Ambler, John S., Neathery, Jody
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Access to Education; Children; Class Differences; Classes, stratification, mobility; Cross-national analysis; Crossnational studies; Education; Education policy; Education reform; Education, Higher; Educational attainment; Educational Change; Educational Inequality; Educational Opportunities; Educational Policy; Educational Reform; Equal Education; Equality; Europe; Factors; Federal Republic of Germany; Foreign Countries; France; Germany; Great Britain; Higher Education; History; Manual labor; Of General Interest; Policy; Policymaking; Post-secondary education; Relationship; School enrollment; Secondary Education; Secondary schools; Social aspects; Social Class; Social classes; Social equality; Social organization. Social system. Social structure; Social research; Social sciences; Sociology; Student Characteristics; Sweden; United Kingdom; Universities; Western Europe; Working class
• ISSN: 0038-4941; 1540-6237

Objective. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the European educational reforms of the past three decades have had the intended effect of reducing the impact of social class on educational achievement. Methods. Data from a variety of sources on the social origins of students in higher education in France, Sweden, Britain, and Germany, from the 1960s to the 1990s, are examined and compared, using, when data allow, a simple odds ratio. Results. We find that the expansion of secondary and higher education enrollments contributed to a modest decrease in the effect of social class of origin upon access to higher education when measured by the odds ratio. We find no clear evidence that comprehensivization has contributed to this trend. The trend disappears entirely when it is measured by the percentage difference between the participation rates of children of upper and lower classes. Conclusions. The modest decline in class inequality suggested by the odds ratio is largely offset by continuing social selection within the increasingly diverse structure of post-secondary education. In Europe, as in the United States, children of the working class are drawn disproportionately to the "less noble" tracks, thereby nullifying much of the effect of expansion on educational inequality.