Do the Effects of Pro-Equality Education Policies Differ across the Performance Distribution?

The effect of specific education policies, such as ability grouping, preschool attendance on educational outcomes and equity has been the subject of much scholarly and political debate. Our paper adds to this debate by examining the association between such policies and equity for children of different abilities. In this way we arrive at a nuanced picture of how such specific education policies might affect different children. We study the issue at a country level for 29 OECD countries with identical methodology, enabling us to show cross-country differences. Linear regression results show that countries differ in terms of how the policy measures are correlated with equity and educational outcomes. Concentrating on equity, quantile regression results indicate that in most countries the association between education policy variables and equity is evenly distributed across the ability distribution. In some countries, however, (Austria, Spain, the US, Belgium, Latvia and Hungary) the policy variables have an especially stratifying or an especially equalising effect for the less able and in other countries for the more able. This means that ability grouping and/or participation in pre-primary education can reinforce or cushion the negative effect of a low socio-economic background more either for the more, the less able or at the median. This means that policy makers – especially in these countries mentioned – should take into account that ability grouping or participation in pre-primary education might have a different effect at different ends of the performance distribution