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Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Finnish Schools

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Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes

Part of the book series: Education Policy & Social Inequality ((EPSI,volume 4))

Abstract

Since the release of the results from PISA 2000, Finland has been lauded as a high-performing, high-equity country. This success has been attributed in part to an egalitarian 9-year comprehensive school created by dramatic de-tracking reforms in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, recent international assessments show this picture may be changing. Not only has Finland’s average performance fallen in recent cycles of PISA, but inequality in achievement appears to be increasing. In this chapter, we examine long-term trends in socioeconomic achievement gaps using data from 18 international assessments conducted between 1964 and 2015. We find that SES achievement gaps declined after de-tracking reforms but have increased more recently. These results are robust to two alternate methods of computing achievement gaps and do not appear to be an artifact of dramatic changes in Finland’s SES distribution over the time period studied. We suggest possible explanations for this rising inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Finland has a new reform summer 2019 extending the compulsory education until age 18.

  2. 2.

    Finland has a new reform summer 2019 extending the compulsory education until age 18.

  3. 3.

    Finland has a new reform (summer 2019) extending compulsory education until age 18.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Katariina Salmela-Aro

  2. ETH Zurich Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, Switzerland

    Katariina Salmela-Aro

  3. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Anna K. Chmielewski

Authors
  1. Katariina Salmela-Aro
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  2. Anna K. Chmielewski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katariina Salmela-Aro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Brock University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Louis Volante

  2. European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy

    Sylke V. Schnepf

  3. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    John Jerrim

  4. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Don A. Klinger

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Salmela-Aro, K., Chmielewski, A.K. (2019). Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Finnish 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_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9863-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-9862-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-9863-6

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