Abstract
International assessments show that the performance of Spanish students in core cognitive competencies is close to the international average and its socioeconomic gradient is below the mean of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Additionally, the performance gap between students in socioeconomically advantaged and socioeconomically disadvantaged schools is relatively small. While these may be seen as remarkable facts, given the comparatively low socioeconomic level of Spanish families and the depth of the scars of the economic crisis, a closer look uncovers a more complex reality. For example, the likelihood of low performance and grade repetition among socioeconomically disadvantaged students relative to non-disadvantaged students is high and important differences across regions still prevail. In this chapter, we describe the recent evolution and situation of socioeconomic inequalities of school-aged Spanish students and discuss the policies that have been applied to tackle the socioeconomic-based performance gap. These policies have been developed within the framework of changing state-level general education acts and designed and applied at the regional level.
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Notes
- 1.
For the distribution of students according to the ownership of the school, see Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD, 2017) and Eurostat on-line database.
- 2.
Source: Retrieved from the EUROSTAT Database: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=t2020_40.
- 3.
Source: Retrieved from the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadística) Database: http://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/es.
- 4.
For Spain, the selected definition of SES underestimates the socioeconomic differences between natives and immigrants. The use of alternative definitions, such as occupational category or the ESCS index provided by PISA, increases these differences.
- 5.
The MECD published in 2010 a document with a series of possible agreements, entitled Pacto social y político por la educación. Some of these possible agreements concern the following areas: evaluation of education, promotion of Professional Training, use of ICTs, promotion of plurilingualism, modernization and internationalization of the universities, scholarships and study aids, professional and social recognition of teachers and inclusive education, diversity and interculturality.
- 6.
All of the data referring to the distribution of the population by education level come from the European Union Labour Force Survey. Retrieved from the EUROSTAT Database: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.
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Choi, Á., Calero, J. (2019). Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Spanish Schools. In: Volante, L., Schnepf, S., Jerrim, J., Klinger, D. (eds) Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes. Education Policy & Social Inequality, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9863-6_6
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