In this article, we show how collaboration between Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools ("folkeskoler") and elite sports clubs to establish SportsClasses enables schools to set parameters that align student-athletes' attitudes and behavior towards school and academic performance. Using neo-institutional theory, we show…

Globally, education policy reforms are increasingly aimed at attending to excellence in education. This is mainly expressed as attempts at raising educational standards generally, but also of identifying intellectual elites and making special provisions for them. Denmark, which is otherwise considered an exponent of an equality-oriented tradition…