International studies of student assessment reveal a strong connection between the socioeconomic status (SES) of families and the educational success of their children in all participating countries. For about half a century this phenomenon is considered pivotal in explaining the reproduction of social disparities over generations (Shavit & Blossfeld, 1993).

In this context Boudon (1974) distinguishes between primary and secondary effects of social origin. The former effects denote the finding that children from privileged homes achieve higher competency levels at school than those from underprivileged homes. According to Bourdieu (1984) this can be explained by the fact that privileged families use their economic, cultural, and social capital to enhance the academic achievement of their children. The latter effects denote the finding that educational choices of parents are closely related to their SES even if the academic achievement of their children is controlled for.

The importance of the task of studying the connection between students’ SES and their achievement, and the means how to reduce this connection, is pointed out by article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “(…) higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit” (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a26).

This symposium gathers an international panel of speakers on the topic of the correlation between families’ SES and the school achievement of their children. The papers to be presented in the symposium reflect the state of the art in educational research on social disparities and address three general aspects at the heart of this field of research:

1. How can “socioeconomic status” be measured as a construct? This question is far from trivial. Common indicators in current studies are, for example: level of education, income, occupational status, number of books in the household, other home possessions, cultural activities, social networks, or poverty. But how can these variables be measured, especially in international comparison? And is it appropriate to summarize them to one single factor (for instance by using factor analysis or item response theory), given that the different constructs – though highly intercorrelated – measure different theoretical aspects of SES.

2. What are the empirical findings on the connection between SES and academic achievement? Although social disparities can be found in all European countries, the amount of social disparities might change over time or differ between countries, regions, different social groups, gender, school subjects et cetera.

3. What measures can be found to decrease social disparities? In order to develop means to decrease social disparities, it is necessary to gain an extensive understanding of the processes causing these inequities. Which characteristics of educational systems, schools, teachers, and families increase respectively decrease the connection between SES and achievement of students? How can actions which help decreasing social disparities be promoted?

The papers to be presented in this symposium address specific questions within the three general aspects described above. Altogether, the symposium consists of nine papers, which are organized in three sessions on the general symposium topic.