Resource and Output Equity as a Mechanism for Assessing Educational Opportunity in Korean Middle School Education

Korea is recognized as a high-performing country in international achievement studies; however, many researchers in and outside Korea have been worried about the existing gaps between high-socioeconomic and low-socioeconomic (SES) students in both student achievement and educational resources. We analyzed the resource and output equity of Korean middle school education to verify if educational opportunities are inequitably provided in terms of educational resources and outputs as international comparison surveys have reported. Contrary to previous studies, we find that there is a horizontally and vertically equitable distribution of educational resources corresponding to SES status and region in Korean middle school education. However, we find inequity in the distribution of educational resources for special needs students. The output equity analysis of student achievement shows evidence of equity—a possible indication that equitable educational resources, particularly throughput resources, are having desired effects on equitable, not equivalent, distribution of educational outputs. The vertical equity analysis of educational outputs implies that SES, region, percentage of non-tenured teachers, percentage of special education students, and the number of professional development programs should be considered criteria for ensuring adequate provisions of educational resources.