Abstract
This chapter takes the results of all previous chapters into account and provides a cross-national evaluation of educational policies designed to reduce socioeconomic inequalities among pupils. By stocktaking on this Volume’s choices for examining socioeconomic inequality and student outcomes, the chapter first reviews the most recent trends of socioeconomic inequality in the nine countries covered. Second, the chapter assesses which national policies appear to have been successful for reducing disadvantaged students’ outcomes, by relating these trends with recent and preceding education policies. In order to cover most of the education policies featured in the single country chapters, this discussion of policies is structured along three dimensions: (a) school autonomy versus centralization; (b) tracking versus comprehensive schooling; and (c) instruction time and curricula. Third, the chapter concludes by addressing existing research caveats and future research directions from a cross-national perspective.