Measuring Inequality Of Opportunity In Education By Combining Information On Coverage And Achievement In Pisa

Measuring how far away countries stand from a goal of equality of opportunity in education has been the focus of recent contributions in the economic literature, which have concentrated either on inter-group gaps in access to a given level of studies, or on inter-group gaps in educational achievement. We argue that both aspects are important and interrelated and, as a consequence, should be measured simultaneously and combined in a composite index of equality of opportunity in education. Employing recent PISA data for a selected set of countries, rank reversals are observed with respect to orderings based upon a single dimension. The index can be generalized to include further dimensions, such as average scores or dissimilarity in access. Palavras-chaves: igualdade de oportunidades em educacao, mensuracao de desigualdade de oportunidades, indices compostos, exame de conhecimentos PISA, America Latina.