Likvärdighet och valfrihet
Är oron för en sänkt likvärdighet sedan det fria skolvalets införande befogad?
The purpose of this essay is to investigate the term equableness in the Swedish elementary school with a take-off point in the free school reform from 1992. This essay starts with the political background of the terms equableness and freedom of choice and the official governmental guidelines. Research from Bo Malmberg and Gabriel Sahlgren act as a framework for the whole essay as their theories are tested. The main problem is presented as the question: is the debated concern regarding a lowered equableness since 1992 justifiable? Both researchers define equableness as a difference in grades but undertake a collective versus a more individual approach. Their ways of measuring equableness together with the two factors segregation and grades makes the theoretical part of this essay. In conclusion the main problem is answered with a yes, the concern of a lowered equableness is justifiable. Not because it is proven lowered but as a result of the vague and wide definition of the term. This can be traced back to the political arena where opposite sides of the political ideologies gave equableness its own definition. Since the 1980s the term has been broadened and defined in many directions. This essay requests a narrower definition of the term equableness. Not until that is done evaluations can be carried out regarding what impact reforms has had on schools and students, one of them being the free school reform.