Abstract

The current focus on the role of egalitarianism in advancing academic excellence has been brought about by the international comparisons of educational achievement, measured either by performance in school curricula (TIMSS) or by the development of critical thinking skills (PISA). Importantly, the extent of societal inequality is found to be significantly correlated with a lower level of average student achievement. Furthermore, national educational structures themselves play a role in promoting or hindering disparities in performance. Statistically, across educational systems the low variance in student achievement within schools and the low variance in achievement between schools translate into more equitable student performance. Conversely, high variance in the above two may indicate the segregation of low-performing and high-performing students in different types of schools and/or in ability grouping or tracking within schools. The consistently top PISA/TIMSS performing nations turned out to have more equitable educational structures, including comprehensive schools for all. Medium-high-performing nations are not as equitable as the top ones, and among these there are several Central European nations that have shown increasingly inequitable student performance over time. It is noteworthy that these post-socialist nations once relied on comprehensive schools but in more recent times have tended to abandon the comprehensive school model. This chapter will review how the ‘egalitarian comprehensive school’ was constructed, demystified and discredited in the countries formerly under socialism and the extent to which these nations differ in the level and inequality of their educational structures and student achievement today. Will inequitable educational structures ultimately hinder the academic achievement of the post-socialist societies? Alternately, will more equitable school structures such as the comprehensive school for all become the new ‘global ideal’?KeywordsComprehensive SchoolLower Secondary EducationEducational StructureLower Secondary LevelComprehensive High SchoolThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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