Evaluation of the equality grant

The Equity grant is a compensatory government grant for organisers in Swedish compulsory school. It was introduced in 2018 and has gradually increased since then. In 2022, the grant amounted to SEK 6.55 billion. All school organisers are to some extent eligible for the grant but the amount per pupil is determined by the socioeconomic composition of the pupils. Organisers with relatively many pupils from a disadvantaged background are eligible for a substantially higher grant per pupil than organisers with relatively many pupils from an advantaged background. The purpose of the project is to investigate if the grant has affected gaps in resources (e.g., quantity and quality of teachers) and learning outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged organisers/schools. We do this by comparing differences between advantaged and disadvantaged organisers/schools in the pre-grant period to corresponding differences in the post-grant period. The project contributes with knowledge on the extent to which government grants can affect the distribution of resources between schools in a decentralised school system, and whether compensatory resource allocation is effective for reducing the gaps in learning outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged schools.