Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies, to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be historically disadvantaged and oppressed. Individuals belonging to these marginalized groups are often denied access to schools with adequate resources. Inequality leads to major differences in the educational success or efficiency of these individuals and ultimately suppresses social and economic mobility. Inequality in education is broken down into different types: regional inequality, inequality by sex, inequality by social stratification, inequality by parental income, inequality by parent occupation, and many more.
Measuring educational efficacy varies by country and even provinces/states within the country. Generally, grades, GPA test scores, other scores, dropout rates, college entrance statistics, and college completion rates are used to measure educational success and what can be achieved by the individual. These are measures of an individual's academic performance ability. When determining what should be measured in terms of an individual's educational success, many scholars and academics suggest that GPA, test scores, and other measures of performance ability are not the only useful tools in determining efficacy.[1] In addition to academic performance, attainment of learning objectives, acquisition of desired skills and competencies, satisfaction, persistence, and post-college performance should all be measured and accounted for when determining the educational success of individuals. Scholars argue that academic achievement is only the direct result of attaining learning objectives and acquiring desired skills and competencies. To accurately measure educational efficacy, it is imperative to separate academic achievement because it captures only a student's performance ability and not necessarily their learning or ability to effectively use what they have learned.[2]