This book examines the international hopes for equality in education over the past 60 years by looking at the current evidence and theory on social class and schooling. For more than half a century the relation between social class and education has been the subject of intense debate and political struggle, as well as the focus for the aspirations of millions of citizens and their children in Western democracies. This book will be relevant to teachers, advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the areas of the history, sociology and politics of education as well as policy analysis and applied social theory.