D 3.1 Trends in Inequality in Education: Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Introduction^[1]

The overall objective of the STRIDE project is to assess inequalities in education, training, and learning outcomes over time and identify reforms and interventions that can compensate for those inequalities and formulate recommendations and a guide to good practices. This report presents the trends of inequalities in education achievement in Europe and an analysis of policy reforms based on re-analyses of international large-scale educational assessment studies: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). We have selected Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy reforms and examined the results in terms of inequalities in educational achievement. The report builds on Deliverable D3.3 Spreadsheet of key indicators and provides input for later outputs of the project such as the digital policy toolbox (Deliverable D6.1.). The report includes the following chapters.

Chapter 2 describes the trends of inequalities in educational achievement of students (in 27 EU member states, Norway and the UK) based on the analysis of international large-scale educational assessment (ILSA) data. We focus on inequality between groups, rather than inequality as dispersion, analysing differences in educational achievement among students with different parental education, gender, immigrant status and urbanisation. In addition to the sequential analysis of dimensions of inequality, we are also applying an intersectional lens, looking at how different aspects of individuals’ identities interact with each other to create inequalities that cannot be understood by separate analysis of the dimensions. Taking into account sample size limitations we study inequality in educational achievement at the intersection of parental education and gender in addition to parental education and urbanisation.

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Chapter 3 provides an overview of reforms and policy initiatives targeting equity and inclusion in early childhood education and care across Europe during the past 25 years. Focusing on reforms at ISCED 0^[2] is particularly justified due to the robust body of scientific evidence demonstrating that early childhood education and care can substantially contribute to children’s cognitive, social and emotional development (Burger 2010; Melhuish 2011; Lazzari & Vandenbroeck 2012). In other words, ISCED 0 is the stage where education systems have the greatest potential to reduce inequalities before they become structurally embedded. At the same time, the influence of social class, ethnicity, poverty, disability and socio-economic status is already partly visible at this early stage. High-quality and inclusive early childhood provision is widely recognised as one of the most effective policy levers for narrowing socio-economic gaps, supporting children with special educational needs, and compensating for resource disparities in the home environment (Bellour et al. 2017). In this sense, reforms at ISCED 0 carry a long-term significance: they not only influence immediate developmental outcomes but also condition the effectiveness of subsequent interventions.

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In Chapter 4, we apply multilevel modelling to the re-analysis the data following the ‘quasi-experiment’ timeline of policy change /reforms described in Chapter 3. Specifically, the analysis examines whether early childhood (ISCED 0) access regulation reforms are associated with changes in educational inequality using PIRLS and TIMSS data.^[3] We compare 21 countries that implemented reforms between 2006–2018 with 6 countries that did not, tracking inequality ratios by parental education, gender, immigrant background, and urbanicity at three points: five years before, the reform year, and five years after. After describing trends in inequality by SES, migrant background, and gender in reform countries and non-reform countries we conduct multilevel models (students within schools within countries) to uncover the difference in average scores between reform and non-reform countries and to study whether the difference between reform and non-reform countries varies by level of parental education.

In Chapter 5, we summarise the analysis results on inequalities in education achievement in Europe obtained in the previous chapters using data from large-scale educational assessment studies. In addition, we summarise insights from additional analyses carried out in Work Package 3^[4] of the STRIDE project that were presented at various conferences.

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