Desegpol

School desegregation policies in the city of Barcelona: impact and mechanisms

Reference: 22S09373-001

School segregation is currently one of the major educational and social challenges faced by European countries and cities. The fight against school segregation has direct implications for the right to education, the well-being of children, the quality of public services, and social cohesion. The city of Barcelona is among the Catalan cities with the highest levels of school segregation, despite having also been a pioneer in the development of local policies to mitigate this problem. In this context, and with the aim of addressing this issue, the Barcelona Education Consortium launched the “Shock Plan against School Segregation” in 2018, a cutting-edge and innovative initiative at the European level that seeks to significantly reduce school segregation in the city through a wide range of measures. More recently, the approval of the new Admissions Decree by the Government of Catalonia in 2021 has contributed to reinforcing this policy, establishing a regulatory framework that consolidates many of the measures contemplated by the Shock Plan, but also incorporating new policy instruments to improve the distribution of socially disadvantaged students.

The main objective of this project is to determine the impact of the Shock Plan and the Admissions Decree on the distribution of socially disadvantaged students among schools in the city of Barcelona, as well as to analyse the role of the different instruments included in these policies. The project aims to capture not only the impact of these policies on school segregation but also how they are interpreted and affect the behaviour of schools and families, and how their impact varies depending on the social, geographical, and educational context. With this objective, and combining two complementary methodological approaches (impact evaluation and realistic evaluation), the project aims to provide evidence for decision-making and the fight against school segregation from a local perspective.

Project Length: 2022-2024

Founding Source/s: Barcelona Ciència – Ajuntament de Barcelona

Type: Competitive Project