Inequality Analysis
What is "educational inequality"?
The concept of “educational inequality” describes the fact that how well children do at school is not just a matter of talent or effort: it also depends, systematically, on things pupils cannot choose, such as their gender, how well-off or well-educated their parents are, whether they have an immigration background, or whether they live in a big city or a rural area.
This does not mean every child from a given group does better or worse than every child from another group — it means that, on average, one group of students consistently scores higher on tests or stays in education longer than another.
When these patterns are large and persistent, they are usually seen as unfair and as a sign that the education system is not giving every child an equal chance to develop their potential.
Educational Inequality Metrics
How do we measure educational inequality?
Researchers and policymakers often measure educational inequality by comparing the average outcomes — most often test scores in subjects like reading, maths or science — of two or more groups of students who sat the same standardised test, for example girls versus boys, or children of university-educated parents versus children whose parents did not go to university.
The size of the difference between these group averages is often called an “achievement gap” or “inequality gap”.
Measuring inequality this way, using large surveys of representative samples of students, makes it possible to track whether gaps are widening or narrowing over time, and to compare countries with one another, which is essential for designing and evaluating policies aimed at making education fairer.