Towards a broader look at inequalities in education: a response to the comments of Michał Sitek

© Educational Research Institute knowledge on inequalities in education. The comments by Michał Sitek are not limited to the discussion of my proposals, but they form a separate article with a clearly outlined hypothesis that the author consistently tries to prove, referring to numerous studies. The aim of my article was to convey a much more modest message. I was mostly interested in the fact that the current state of research does not allow us to conclude that after the school reform in Poland in 1999, inequality in education decreased. I tested three hypotheses, the first of which concerned the impact of social background on students’ performance, the second – the relationship between social origin and the choice between different types of upper secondary schools, and the third on the consequences of the gradual differentiation of lower secondary schools introduced by the reform. In all three cases, available data did not allow me to reject the hypothesis that no changes occurred in educational inequalities during the 15 years of the functioning of new schools in Poland. In the article I made no attempt to explain why this is the case. Referring to research, I tried to convince the reader that inequalities Ignorance is bliss