ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches the issue of equity by examining the changing lot of migrant children in Shanghai, which has traditionally been the educational laboratory of China and the site of its programme for international student assessment (PISA) success. The discussion is framed by the current incertitude around PISA results. The chapter examines the progress or otherwise of targeted government policies designed to improve access to education, and assess the quality of that education for migrant children in Shanghai, as the city's schools collect international accolades for their performance. Two related major challenges have accompanied Shanghai's efforts to expand educational access to migrant children. The first challenge is the uneven distribution of the population of migrant children among the 17 districts of Shanghai. The second challenge is the estimated lack of school capacity to enrol the growing number of students, which has resulted in raised threshold requirements for migrant children.
