School regimes and education equity: some insights based on PISA 2006

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the effects of certain characteristics of the educational systems on the social composition of schools. After accounting for significant effects of schools’ social composition on student outcomes (this is confirmed on the basis of a multilevel analysis), we explore the impacts of distinct components of what we name ‘school regimes’ on measures of school social segregation (Hutchens indices) across countries and regions. The PISA 2006 database has been used as the main source of information for such measures. Our analysis considers data for 32 OECD educational systems. Certain characteristics of school regimes are specially assessed: the level of institutional differentiation existing in the educational career; the presence of private schools in compulsory education; the level of school autonomy as regards the process of student admission; and the models and criteria defining public regulation of school access processes. Results of the regression analyses suggest that more market‐oriented school regimes tend to increase schools’ social segregation, whilst those characterised as more comprehensive and publicly regulated tend to reduce it.

Notes

1. Private dependent schools are here considered as schools that are privately managed but receive public funding, whilst private independent schools are privately managed and not publicly funded.

2. See OECD (2007) for a description of the PISA 2006 programme, as well as for a description of the national and sub‐national sample numbers.

3. The PISA ESCS index is composed of individual measures for parental occupational status, family level of education and home possessions. See the PISA 2003 technical report (OECD, 2005) for a detailed explanation of its construction.

4. For an interesting discussion of the use of school segregation indices, see Allen and Vignoles (2007) and Gorard (2007).

5. For an overview of the advantages of the Hutchens index in comparison to other segregation indices, see Jenkins et al. (2008).

6. Tracks are defined here as parallel educational itineraries that divide students into different school settings (not necessarily into different institutions) and that may lead to different credentials with distinct academic values.