This study analyses the effects of residential segregation in Montevideo on the learning differences of students and examines the efficacy of the educational system's responses seeking to deal with the inequities generated by those processes. After describing the effects of the family, the school and the neighbourhood on learning, it presents hierarchical linear models which seek to isolate the effects of each of these contexts. It summarizes the challenges raised by the results to Uruguayan education's efforts to dissociate learning achievements from social origin and examines the responses of the authorities of the sector to those challenges. Finally, it reviews policy options for strengthening the role of education as the principal means for integrating new generations in the light of new problems in relation to urban segregation.