Cross-national differences in the academic impact of socioeconomically integrated schools: The evidence from the PISA data

The link between national income inequality and school socioeconomic diversity complicates the effectiveness of using school integration as a policy tool to promote education equity without harming overall educational outcomes. Using hierarchical linear modelling and propensity score matching, this study investigated PISA 2015 and 2018 data. Three main findings include: (1) a Gatsby-like curve is observed that indicates a positive association between national school diversity and Gini coefficients; (2) school socioeconomic diversity harms the academic performance of students in countries above the estimated curve; (3)the effectiveness of school socioeconomic integration strengthens as the estimated curve evolves. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of integration policy depends on visible income disparities and unequally distributed tangible educational resources in society. The absence of these conditions may render a simple socioeconomic integration inadequate for success.