ABSTRACT
Equity funding allocates additional staff as well as financial subsidies to schools serving students who are socio-economically or otherwise disadvantaged. The aim is to compensate for material, social and cultural obstacles in the living and learning environment of those students. Yet, the international evidence about the effectiveness of these measures is not very convincing.
This chapter compares the design, governance, implementation and effectiveness of equity funding schemes in Flanders (Belgium), England (UK), the Netherlands, France and Ireland.
The review confirms that equity funding does reduce unequal outcomes by social background and migration status, but progress is slow and the improvements do not meet expectations. Various explanations can be given: pre-existing (often hidden) inequalities in school resources (the so-called ‘Matthew effect’ in the allocation of teachers), poor implementation, lack of accountability mechanisms and, most of all, adverse structural features of education systems. The success of equity funding depends primarily on structural reforms to remedy the deep-rooted segregation and selection mechanisms (such as grade repetition, early tracking, ability grouping) that systematically discourage learning.
