Market models and segregation: examining mechanisms of student sorting

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, policymakers around the globe have adopted market mechanisms such as consumer-style choice, provider autonomy and competition. Such policies may improve educational equity since families can choose options outside of their assigned local school. Yet research from multiple countries is finding a link between greater use of such policies and increases in social segregation in schooling. This comprehensive analysis is a first step in examining the specific policies and institutional and contextual factors that may alleviate or exacerbate different types of student sorting. Rather than focus only on the question of causation, we instead examine the potential pathways through which market mechanisms might impact student sorting, and highlight the role of incentives in shaping these pathways. In specifying several such pathways, we then present a framework through which further research might conceptualize and theorize the relationship between market mechanisms and student opportunity.

KEYWORDS:

• Education policy
• privatisation
• incentives
• choice
• segregation
• access

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Also known as state schools in some countries, public systems of compulsory schooling are established, funded and managed by public authorities. Their revenue is derived from taxation and they are tuition-free. Virtually all countries have a system of public schooling and in most countries, most students attend a public school.

2 Market models have been embraced predominantly in comprehensive education systems. In the selective/differentiated education systems that are common in many European (and some Asian) countries, the dynamics of choice and competition also exist, with students choosing schools and schools choosing and competing for students. These dynamics have been in place for more than 100 years, predating the rise of marketization and neo-liberalism. Interestingly, they were even embraced by the anti-market-oriented socialist political regimes of eastern and central Europe. The difference, however, is about the underlying rationale and logic. In market-oriented comprehensive systems, choice and competition are conceived as mechanisms for improving school quality and effectiveness, as well as promoting equitable access to ‘good’ schools. In differentiated/selective systems, choice and competition are naturalised as by-products of a system that is designed to sort students based on their interests and abilities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Lubienski

Christopher Lubienski is a professor of education policy at Indiana University, and a fellow with the National Education Policy Center. His research focuses on education policy, reform, and the political economy of education, with a particular concern for issues of equity, access, and evidence use in policymaking. His current work examines (1) organizational responses to competitive conditions in local education markets, including geo-spatial analyses education opportunities, and (2) policymakers' use of research evidence as influenced by advocacy organizations. ORCID 0000-0001-7372-5801.

Laura B. Perry

Laura B. Perry is professor of comparative education, sociology of education, and education policy at Murdoch University. She conducts research about educational disadvantage and inequalities, especially as they appear between schools, and the systems, structures and policies that shape them. The aim of her research is to inform policy and practice for improving equity of educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes. Specific research interests include educational marketization, school segregation and stratification, and social class and education. ORCID 0000-0003-4252-2379.

Jina Kim

Jina Kim is a Ph.D. student in Education Policy Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research interests center around equity issues in education policy process, geographic analysis of educational opportunity, and legislative effects on educational equity. Prior to pursuing her degree at Indiana University Bloomington, she worked at the National Assembly Research Service in South Korea as a research assistant. She obtained her Master's degree in Education at Seoul National University, South Korea, where she wrote her Master's thesis on North Korean defector students' education in South Korea. She also earned her Bachelor's degree in Political Science at McGill University, Canada.

Yusuf Canbolat

Yusuf Canbolat is a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy Studies at Indiana University. His research focuses on school choice and educational equity at the national and international scales. He uses quantitative and econometric methods in his studies. He is a former math teacher and worked on monitoring and evaluation at the Ministry of National Education of Turkey for five years. He recently received a summer fellowship at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.