Modern education systems should ensure equal opportunities to all students, irrespective of the socio-economic status of their families. This political desideratum is based upon, not only on ethical considerations, but also – and mainly – by the need of fostering economic development and progress. To develop, at maximum, the potential of each and every individual in a community, it is imperative to reduce human resource lost and, consequently, to improve wealth creation. And yet, there seems to persist, the common belief that the more equitable the education system is, the poorer it behaves in terms of learning standards. In fact, relevant empirical evidence points on the opposite direction: according to PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment, OECD countries like Korea, Finland, Canada and Japan, “combine high average performance with equity and have a large proportion of top-performing students, which demonstrates that excellence and equity can go together” (OECD, 2010). This research aims at improving the understanding of the factors which affect equality in education systems, in particular, those related with (i) unequal distribution of school resources, (ii) differences between public and private schools, including organization and practices, and (iii) dissimilar conditions between rural and urban schools. One of the objectives of this research is to study the mechanisms, at school and system levels, which can either deepen or smooth pre-existing differences and to analyse the relationship between performance and equity.

--