This article explores the institutional dynamics that contribute to educational inequality within Nordic cities. The persistent issue of social inequality in education remains a prominent challenge for the Nordic welfare states. By investigating the gaps between educational policies and their practical implementation, this study sheds light on the…

In this important volume, leading scholars take an honest look at the progress made since "Brown v. Board of Education." Critical and forward-looking chapters document the shifts over time on key aspects of education, including school segregation, achievement trends in relation to policies and practices, the diversity of the teaching…

Recent discussions in science, politics and society offer starting points for rethinking the approach to the wicked problem of educational inequality. In our paper, we want to do this by reviewing research, policy and practice in primary education in the Netherlands. Our reflections are first focused on the state of the art in research and the…

The spatial, institutional and social configurations of school supply and demand are crucial aspects in understanding the various mechanisms of production and reproduction of socio-spatial inequalities in education. The same policy instruments may have different effects depending on the characteristics of local education markets and the dynamics…

In Spain there is an increasing trend towards educational policies allowing completely free choice of schools. The purpose of the review described here was to investigate whether school segregation arising from grant maintenance arrangements is an item taken into account when policies for educational equity are under consideration in Spain. It…

As large urban school districts increasingly turn to market-based reforms, arguing that they will improve school quality, better meet diverse student and family needs, and level the playing field for disadvantaged families, the distributional effects of those policies are still poorly understood. A growing literature on the bounded and embedded…

This paper conceptualizes segregation as a phenomenon that emerges from the intersection of public policy and individual decision-making. Contemporary scholarship on complex decision-making describes a two-step process--1) Editing and 2) Selection--and has emphasized the individual decision-maker's agency in both steps. We build on this work by…

This paper provides a historical examination of the origins and persistence of social segregation within the Chilean educational system, tracing its inception to the nineteenth century. The analysis explores the geographical disparities that characterised the early education system, particularly the divide between rural and urban areas and the…

Drawing on the case of the "model school plan" in Nepal, this article critically examines how education reform plans to achieve Sustainable Development Goals reproduce neoliberal ideologies and exacerbate social injustices. Building on neoliberalism and school gentrification, we use critical policy sociology to examine how the modeling…

This study offers a comparative examination of desegregation policy reforms in Belgium, Chile, and the Netherlands, addressing equity reforms to universal school choice systems. Through an analysis of the reform trajectories, we explore the evolution of policies, the causal mechanisms of change, efforts to institutionalize policies, and the…

May 17, 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled segregated schools were "inherently unequal." At the time, North Carolina was one of 17 states that enforced de jure segregation, that is, segregation by law. The state of North Carolina and the school districts within…

Automatic admissions policies (AAPs, "percent plans") redistribute college-going opportunities across segregated high schools to diversify college enrollments, increasing opportunities at predominantly minority high schools. If students "game" AAPs by attending schools with increased opportunities, AAPs could alter racial…

Education markets have spread worldwide over the past few decades. Frequently, the expansion of markets in education is presented by their promoters as a means to improve the opportunities of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged students. However, the evidence available shows that market-oriented policies that enhance competition and choice…

Despite multiple creative approaches to integrating Minnesota's segregated urban public schools, students of color in these schools remain the majority. The state's progressive, anti-racist sentiment toward education has not evolved into action on the part of White families, which leaves under-resourced urban districts struggling beneath a mere…

Controversy is intensifying with the rapid spread of charter schools and their domination of the education reform agenda. As charter enrolment increases in the USA, inequities in education worsen. This article contributes to the debate on contemporary education policy by critically examining charter issues from the US literature and stakeholder…