Longitudinal Research on Educational Inequalities in Europe: A Scoping Review of Trends, Gaps, and Methodological Approaches

Educational inequality is a major challenge for individuals and societies. Prior research indicated that disparities in academic performance, socio-emotional skills, and educational attainment tend to widen, as students’ progress through primary and secondary education. Socioeconomic status, immigrant background, ethnicity, geographical location, and gender have consistently emerged as critical drivers of these educational inequalities. Despite extensive research identifying these factors, our understanding of the specific mechanisms by which they influence educational outcomes remains limited. In this report, we share initial findings from a scoping review of longitudinal studies providing quantitative evidence on inequalities in educational outcomes—specifically academic achievement, socio-emotional skills, and educational attainment—among K–12 students across Europe. Our results suggest that the volume of longitudinal research addressing these issues has notably increased. Nonetheless, substantial gaps remain and highlight opportunities for further investigation, for instance, concerning early childhood education, interventions, research in Eastern European contexts, and research exploring how multiple social categories combine to create unique patterns of educational inequality.