The paper present elements of analysis derived from the collective research EuroPEP. One of the results of this analysis refers to the finding of a historical transformation in the meaning and implications of these policies: from the first "compensatory" policies in the 1960’s and 1970’s to the present implementations in several European countries. The paper suggest the hypothesis of a change in "referent" or "paradigm" of these policies via the evolution of group-targeting, different argumentation, new kinds of measures (pedagogical and curricular), and a different purpose. It intends to show how different tensions structure the design and implementation of these policies: Tensions between equity and diversity; between the equalization of opportunities, the building of a common culture, or the fight against exclusion; between the different meanings of the concept of « democratization » of the school (the sacred, uniform and equal treatment vs. the flexible, diverse, more equitable/less equal orientation). This complex reality also takes us back to the early criticisms of these compensatory policies developed in the 1970’s in the field of sociology of education, e.g. Bourdieu and Bernstein.