This symposium is based on the findings of the largest European study on schooling: INCLUD-ED (2006-2011), from the 6^th Framework Program of the EU. This Integrated Project involved partners from 14 European countries to study the educational actions that promote school success for all students and the educational actions which hinder this aim thus reinforcing inequalities between students. INCLUD-ED has also studied how educational provisions intersect with interventions in other social areas, influencing the access to decent housing and employment, quality of health services, and the participation in social and political domains, promoting greater social cohesion and personal development opportunities for all.

These topics are directly related to the multiple challenges as regards educational and social inequalities that the European society of today has to face. This symposium aims to present evidence that research can provide valuable knowledge basis to undertake policies and actions which are more efficient in achieving these objectives of equity. This was the ultimate aim of INCLUD-ED: that the evidences gathered can serve to guide policy development in education to improve social cohesion. The Final INCLUD-ED conference held December 6^th, 2011 in the European Parliament in Brussels was built with this aim and made available the evidences gathered through five years to a number of almost 300 attendees, including members of the European Parliament, representatives of different Member States and regional Parliaments, European Commission representatives, policy makers and researchers. Five European resolutions and recommendations already account for INCLUD-ED findings to improve education in schools in Europe.

The three papers presented here stem from the analysis of actions that have successfully addressed educational and social inequalities in different countries across the European geography. These actions share commonalities across the different cases –a universal dimension– that are in the basis of their success. These commonalities make possible that these actions can be transferred to other contexts and achieve there the same successful results. Educational policy based on these evidences has the power to maximise and extend the impact of these successful actions.

The first paper presents the successful actions in education that have been identified based on the analysis of successful European schools. These actions are making possible that schools in disadvantaged contexts and with migrant and minority background students achieve school success. A more efficient use of the resources available is the main characteristic that makes possible the both the efficiency and the transferability of these actions. Education alone cannot overcome social inequalities, and for this reason INCLUD-ED has studied how education can be a key component of mixed interventions between education and other areas of social policy. This is the focus of the second paper. Finally, the third paper focuses on the central role of dialogue between researchers, policy makers and end-users in the development of successful actions. The egalitarian dialogue is also in the basis of the Critical Communicative Methodology (CCM), which has been implemented in INCLUD-ED and made possible achieving the findings presented in this symposium.