Sweden possesses a highly deregulated school system in which students in the compulsory school system are free to choose almost any school they prefer. This study focuses on the long-term difference in educational level twelve years after finishing elementary school for students who made a school choice compared to those who did not. The study uses the Voronoi method of estimating school choice and is based on detailed register-based data for all students that finished elementary school in Sweden in the years 2000-2002. The results confirm previous findings that the most resourceful families more often make active choices. However, those who made an active school choice seem to have lower future educational achievement. The exception are those who have foreign-born parents, and those living in low-resource areas, who made an active school choice. They have a more positive educational achievement compared to those who stayed in the closest school.
Swedish compulsory schools are committed to work for equality and social cohesion. Increasing school segregation, however, challenges this commitment. Based on survey data from Swedish municipalities, this article maps and analyses local initiatives that counteract school segregation. We identify three main types of initiatives-reinforcement, dispersal, and merging-and the exogenous (school external) and endogenous (school internal) drivers involved in each of them. The analysis reveals several gaps between the national level, the municipal level and local schools that hamper local efforts to counter school segregation. This article contributes to increased knowledge on how local initiatives of counteracting segregation are constrained by national policies about school choice and independent versus municipal schools, but also how local initiatives tend to focus on organizational dynamics rather than on social and pedagogical processes.
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