European Cities Against School Segregation
The project aims to create innovative solutions to enable local institutions to address school segregation in European cities.
Most European education systems face the challenge of integrating migrant and/or refugee students into their schools and communities. The concentration of social problems in specific neighborhoods exacerbates issues of school dropout and makes it extremely difficult for children from disadvantaged families to achieve academic success. The growing presence of migrant families also triggers middle-class family strategies, known as “white flight,” aimed at avoiding schools with a higher presence of non-native students. Conversely, families of migrant origin tend to engage in cultural emulation processes, which further concentrate migrant groups in specific schools. These and other factors significantly increase school segregation, often exceeding the residential segregation of the corresponding neighborhood. Given the associated costs and benefits, reducing school segregation should be a priority for education policies. However, several obstacles hinder local educational agencies from developing effective desegregation policies. One major challenge is the “transfer gap” in applying existing academic knowledge on segregation to policy-making processes.
The ECASS project is designed as a collaboration between researchers specializing in segregation issues and local authorities in three cities: Barcelona, Milan and Oslo.
The project seeks to generate innovative solutions in five policy areas: admission criteria, school offerings, systems for identifying potentially vulnerable students , communication strategies, priority interventions targeting disadvantaged schools and students.
Duration
2019–2022
Team LPS
Costanzo Ranci, Carolina Pacchi, Gianluca De Angelis, Marta Cordini
Consortium
Politecnico di Milano, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) of Oslo, Municipality of Milan, Municipality of Barcelona (Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona, CEB), Municipality of Oslo
Funding Body
European Union – Erasmus+ Program
Website
https://www.ecass.eu