During the past decade a growing number of Spanish researchers have explored a new perspective on Roma/Gitano students' school achievement and its cultural, social and emotional consequences, focusing on school success rather than underachievement or dropout. This paper will review the evolution of the research production and the changing contexts of the policy trends affecting the 'Roma education issue' as it has been developed in Spain in the last ten years (2004-2014). Furthermore the paper will present results from an ongoing FP7 project on Early School Leaving (RESL.Eu), involving several Roma youth in its sample by comparatively analysing present trends of academic success, strategies and opportunity structures. The authors take the starting point of the study of Abajo & Carrasco (2004) that focused on trajectories of educational achievement and continuity of Gitano youth, and go on to reconstruct the approaches undertaken by qualitative, quantitative and evaluation research since then, in relation to their contributions to improve policy recommendations . In Spain, younger generations of Roma/Gitano continue dropping out from school at a younger age, than their non-Roma peers. According to a recent study (FSG and CEET 2013), only about 16% of Roma/Gitano youth (aged 12–24) obtain compulsory lower secondary education (ISCED2) credential, and less than 1% of them achieve post-compulsory academic credentials. Racial/ethnic segregation in school affects Roma/Gitano students, especially in poor, marginalised neighbourhoods (Santiago and Maya 2012). Deepening financial crisis has undermined many Roma/Gitano families’ labour market opportunities (FSG and EDIS 2012), putting at risk their children’s school achievement and academic continuity (FSG 2013). The role played by Spanish and European social and educational strategies addressed to the Roma/Gitano population is critically explored to challenge the controversial notion of a ‘Spanish model of Roma integration’. Finally, the authors will argue that the deterioration of public education, the virtual disappearance of social benefits in recent years and the worrying actions against Roma citizens in the EU are to account for the interrupted aspirations of a whole generation of Roma/Gitano youth, in Spain.

Abajo, José Eugenio, and Sílvia Carrasco. 2004. “El Éxito Escolar Del Alumnado Gitano: Encrucijada Personal, Familiar, Comunitaria, Escolar Y Social.” In Memoría de Papel (1980-2005), edited by Jesús Salinas, 179–187. Asociación de Enseñantes con Gitanos. FSG. 2013. El Impacto de La Crisis En La Comunidad Gitana. Madrid: Fundación Secretariado Gitano. FSG, and CEET. 2013. El Alumnado Gitano En Secundaria: Un Estudio Comparado. Madrid: Fundación Secretariado Gitano, (CNIIE) Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. FSG, and EDIS. 2012. Población Gitana, Empleo E Inclusión Social. Un Estudio Comparado: Población Gitana Española Y Del Este de Europa. Madrid: Fundación Secretariado Gitano. Santiago, Carmen, and Ostalinda Maya. 2012. “Segregación Escolar Del Alumnado Gitano En España.” Madrid.