Introduction: The democratisation of upper secondary education?

Rates of staying-on in education beyond the age of 16 have increased dramatically in recent decades, both in Western and developing countries. This expansion has led to upper-secondary education providing for an increasingly diverse student population, and concerns have been raised regarding declining standards, grade inflation and the declining value of educational credentials. But what are the implications for class inequalities? This special issue examines the nature and implications of educational expansion in China, England and Wales, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden. In this editorial, we outline the similarities and differences in the findings for each nation, and consider what can be learned from the diverse national experiences of these common educational themes. We argue that progress towards reduction of class inequalities tends to be greater when a fixed, criterion-referenced yardstick for measuring educational attainment is used than when a relative, 'positional' one is employed. The evidence also suggests that reforms are typically ineffective, at least with respect to class inequalities, or have unintended consequences. The greatest changes, such as those involved with gender inequalities, seem to be unrelated to any explicit reform or government policy but instead reflect wider social processes. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.