EquityandQualityinEducationSupportingDisadvantaged.pdfVIP

Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Under embargo: Thursday, 9 February 2012) /edu/equity This Executive Summary draws upon the OECD report Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools. More information is available at /edu/equity. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Reducing school failure pays off for both society and individuals. It can also contribute to economic growth and social development. Indeed the highest performing education systems across OECD countries are those that combine quality with equity. Equity in education means that personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin or family background, are not obstacles to achieving educational potential (fairness) and that that all individuals reach at least a basic minimum level of skills (inclusion). In these education systems, the vast majority of students have the opportunity to attain high level skills, regardless of their own personal and socio-economic circumstances. OECD countries face the problem of school failure and dropout Across OECD countries, almost one of every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills to function in today’s societies (indicating lack of inclusion). Students from low socio-economic background are twice as likely to be low performers, implying that personal or social circumstances are obstacles to achieving their educational potential (indicating lack of fairness). Lack of incl