Why Should We Care About School Segregation?

The chapter lays out the main themes of the book, pointing to errors that are frequently made in understanding school segregation. By focusing on socioeconomic segregation, we can develop a broad cross-national conception of student sorting that takes into account formal and informal systems of segregation. This chapter notes the distinction between within-school and between-school segregation, as well as the potential for segregation that occurs in earlier grades. After reviewing the motivation for employing International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) studies, we review some limitations with our approach. We conclude with an outline of the book.