Education Inequality

Income inequality has become the defining issue in the U.S. since the end of the recession. With stagnant wages and declining mobility among the working and middle class, many Americans believe the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy. Education can change this. To do so, however, we need to create the right conditions for students to succeed (i.e., increasing opportunity) and explore solutions to help them move ahead (i.e., improving mobility). This issue of the Journal of Social Issues, Education Inequality: Opportunity and Mobility, focuses on this theme.

INTRODUCTION Reframing the Inequality Debate toward Opportunity and Mobility 619 Norman Eng and Allan Ornstein SECTION I: OPPORTUNITY School Finance & the Distribution of Equal Educational Opportunity in the Postrecession U.S. 629 Bruce D. Baker The Social Genome Model: Estimating How Policies Affect Outcomes, Mobility and Inequality across the Life Course 656 Gregory Acs, Steven Martin, Jonathan A. Schwabish, and Isabel V. Sawhill Education Inequality: Broadening Public Attitudes through Framing 676 Norman Eng Global Equality of Educational Opportunity: Creating the Conditions for all Students to Succeed 696 Andreas Schleicher and Pablo Zoido SECTION II: MOBILITY From Deficiency to Strength: Shifting the Mindset about Education Inequality 720 Yong Zhao The Career Pathways Movement: A Promising Strategy for Increasing Opportunity and Mobility 740 Robert B. Schwartz Children's Reasoning about Poverty, Economic Mobility, and Helping Behavior: Results of a Curriculum Intervention in the Early School Years 760 Rashmita S. Mistry, Lindsey Nenadal, Katherine M. Griffin, Frederick J. Zimmerman, Hasmik Avetisian Cochran, Carla-Anne Thomas, and Christopher Wilson "I'm Still Waiting On That Golden Ticket": Attitudes toward and Experiences with Opportunity in The Streets of Black America 789 Yasser Arafat Payne and Tara Marie Brown SECTION III: COMMENTARY Commentary 812 Helen F. Ladd SECTION IV: LEWIN AWARD ADDRESS Carrying On Kurt Lewin's Legacy in Many Current Domains: Lewin Award 2015 828 Philip G. Zimbardo