Which schools and pupils respond to educational achievement surveys?: a focus on the English Programme for International Student Assessment sample

Despite their stated intention of providing equal educational opportunity for all, many democratic countries separate their students into different classes or even different schools based on their demonstrated academic ability and likely future career. This practice is often referred to as “tracking or “ability grouping.” This study aims to determine whether different types of educational tracking have different effects on students’ academic achievement. Specifically, this study investigates whether disparities in educational achievement between students of highly educated versus minimally educated parents are greater in countries that practice more explicit and complete forms of tracking. It also explores tracking’s effects on average achievement and overall achievement variance. Analysis of data from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicates that tracking generally does increase score disparities between children from different educational backgrounds. Tracking is also associated with higher overall variance of scores. At the same time, tracking may have a slight positive effect on average achievement. However, results are not consistent across all countries, and patterns are different in different subject areas and for different types of tracking. The results of this study neither condemn nor extol tracking. Rather, they indicate that tracking plays a relatively minor role in determining the quality and equity of an education system.

Download Full-text

Educational Achievement Gaps between Immigrant and Native Students in Two “New” Immigration Countries

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716212441590 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 643 (1) ◽

pp. 46-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Davide Azzolini ◽

Philipp Schnell ◽

John R. B. Palmer

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Immigrant Students ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Achievement Gaps ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

School Type ◽

Native Students ◽

International Student Assessment

The authors use 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to determine how immigrant children in Italy and Spain compare with native students in reading and mathematics skills. Drawing on the vast empirical literature in countries with traditionally high rates of immigration, the authors test the extent to which the most well-established patterns and hypotheses of immigrant/native educational achievement gaps also apply to these comparatively “new” immigration countries. The authors find that both first- and second-generation immigrant students underperform natives in both countries. Although socioeconomic background and language skills contribute to the explanation of achievement gaps, significant differences remain within the countries even after controlling for those variables. While modeling socioeconomic background reduces the observed gaps to a very similar extent in both countries, language spoken at home is more strongly associated with achievement gaps in Italy. School-type differentiation, such as tracking in Italy and school ownership in Spain, do not reduce immigrant/native gaps, although in Italy tracking is strongly associated with immigrant students’ test scores.

Download Full-text

Educational standards resist improvement in Peru

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db208440 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Educational Standards ◽

Content Type ◽

Fiscal Constraints ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

University Courses ◽

Low Wages

Subject Efforts to improve educational standards. Significance Of the 65 countries covered by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study in 2012, Peru came last for educational achievement. Although President Ollanta Humala's administration has received praise for the priority it has given to the educational sector, Peru will need to expend more effort in improving standards if it is ever to be admitted to the OECD. Impacts Teachers' low wages will continue to represent an obstacle to educational improvements. Fiscal constraints will make it more difficult for the next government, which takes office in July, to devote more money to education. There is still a mismatch between existing university courses and the need to boost technological expertise.

Download Full-text

Modeling Educational Inequalities: Class, Academic Achievement, and Regional Differences in Turkey

Education and Urban Society ◽

10.1177/0013124517747036 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 51 (5) ◽

pp. 659-692 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ela Ataç

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Educational Inequality ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Entrance Examination ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

Regional Inequalities ◽

Geographical Variations ◽

National University

As it has been realized that education is a key to a long-term economic growth and to reducing social and economic disadvantages, educational inequality and its reflections in the geography have become some of the major issues in many countries. Turkey is in many ways a good example to analyze the relations between class, education, and regional inequalities where education is strongly a class-related issue and there has also been a strong dimension of “geography” as far as the educational provision and performance are considered. The purpose of the article is to contribute to two debates on the relation of education and inequality in Turkey. One is a specific and practical way of understanding about the effect of socioeconomic backgrounds of the students on their educational achievement. The other is an understanding on causal relations based on socioeconomic variables and geographical variations and how these lead to or indeed are partly caused by regional inequalities in Turkey. Using the datasets of PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) database, the datasets of National University Entrance Examination and Census, the article finds that for Turkish students where (the region and the place of residence) and with whom (socioeconomic qualifications of parents) they live are the powerful indicators of academic achievement.

Download Full-text

Comparing Students’ Engagement in Classroom Education Between China and Germany

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754637 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Shu Deng

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Student Engagement ◽

Classroom Environment ◽

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Learner Engagement ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

The Uk

Since the mid-1980s, there has been an academic shift toward students’ involvement in the learning process. A great number of studies have focused on the relationship between student engagement and educational achievement. They have highlighted that appropriate educational input and a supportive classroom environment are necessary, but optimum learning should occur when students are engaged with the curriculum as well as the institution, particularly in higher education institutions. Many scholars claimed that higher levels of engagement will help students deal with academic anxiety and develop a sense of belonging, which may lead to higher academic success. Educational experts and policymakers have begun to propose nationwide and international strategies and programs to promote student engagement in the classroom, which has led to the proposal of well-known programs such as the National Survey of Student Engagement, the UK Engagement Survey, and Program for International Student Assessment. Such engagement-centered international measures have been used across the globe (e.g., Germany) and translated into different languages (e.g., Chinese). Although the findings of relevant studies confirm the effectiveness of engagement on learning achievement, there is still the need to conduct further (cross-sectional) studies considering the implementation of such programs in a different context. The present study is an attempt to review the related literature regarding student engagement among Chinese and German students across a variety of disciplines. The findings suggest that researchers should devote more time and budget to investigate the significance of learner engagement, especially in Germany and China.

Download Full-text

Modeling strategies for enhancing educational quality

Research in Comparative and International Education ◽

10.1177/1745499917711546 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 160-173

Author(s):

William K Cummings ◽

Olga Bain

Keyword(s):

Global Economy ◽

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

System Level ◽

Path Modeling ◽

Educational Achievements ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

National Analysis ◽

National Systems

With the strengthening of the global economy, contemporary societies have come to view the educational achievements of their young people as a major component of national competiveness. But there are substantial variations in the strategies employed by different nations. To maximize educational achievements, some nations believe that the provision of a stratified system of schooling is effective, at least for the minority who are able to gain entry to the elite academic stream. In contrast, other nations prefer a more egalitarian strategy to education where all students attend a common school devoid of ability streams until well into their secondary level studies. The egalitarian strategy is believed to be just and fair. But does it enhance educational achievement? Several other strategies are also being advanced, and the same questions can be asked about them. There are a number of studies that explore the academic consequences of different strategies within particular national systems, but there are relatively few studies that explore these questions across several national systems. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development-supported Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies enable a cross-national analysis; but the official reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development primarily provide bivariate analyses of these relations whereas a multivariate strategy taking into account several system level variables is preferred. In this paper we examine the historical origins of six contemporary strategies, and draw on the PISA studies to compare the relative efficacy of these strategies relying on path modeling.

Download Full-text

Finnish Education System and its Triumph in Pisa: Lessons to Learn for Pakistan

Global Regional Review ◽

10.31703/grr.2020(v-i).51 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol V (I) ◽

pp. 479-487

Author(s):

Sobia Altaf ◽

Abid Shehzad ◽

Aneela Sana Akhtar

Keyword(s):

Education System ◽

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

The Other ◽

Educational Policies ◽

Educational Structure ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

Long Run ◽

System 2

Finland has emerged as world leader in terms of educational achievement and become a symbol for school development and reforms since the first exam of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a test structured for the fifteen-year-old students, in science and language literacy, on which it ranked highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. The major aim of the study was 1) to review the factors behind the phenomenal success of Finnish education system, 2) what lessons possibly Pakistan could learn while considering the differences. The findings were that there were no isolated factors that have a contribution in the success of Finnish Education system rather there were numerous interrelated factors that had added strength to Finland�s successful educational structure. Moreover, the educational policies in the long run, the culture of trust and the passion of Finnish citizens for reading are the other reasons for this triumph.

Download Full-text

Migrant Youths’ Educational Achievement

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716212440786 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 643 (1) ◽

pp. 18-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Deborah A. Cobb-Clark ◽

Mathias Sinning ◽

Steven Stillman

Keyword(s):

Private School ◽

International Student ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Institutional Arrangements ◽

Achievement Gaps ◽

Migrant Students ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

Science Test ◽

Pisa Data

The authors use 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to link institutional arrangements in OECD countries’ to disparities in reading, math, and science test scores for migrant and native-born students. The authors find that achievement gaps are larger for migrant youths who arrive at older ages and for those who do not speak the language of the PISA test at home. Institutional arrangements often serve to mitigate the achievement gaps of some migrant students while leaving unaffected or exacerbating those of others. For example, earlier school starting ages help migrant youths in some cases but by no means in all. Limited tracking of students by ability appears to be beneficial for migrants’ relative achievement, while complete tracking and the presence of a large private school sector appear to be detrimental. Migrant students’ achievement, relative to their native-born peers, suffers as educational spending and teachers’ salaries increase, but it improves when teacher evaluation includes an examination component.

Download Full-text

Educational achievement disparities between second-generation and non-immigrant students: Do school characteristics account for tracking effects?

European Educational Research Journal ◽

10.1177/14749041211039929 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 147490412110399

Author(s):

Katja Pomianowicz

Keyword(s):

Fixed Effects ◽

International Student ◽

Second Generation ◽

Immigrant Students ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Student Assessment ◽

School Characteristics ◽

Reading Literacy ◽

Multilevel Regression ◽

International Student Assessment

The present article investigates the relationship between the degree of tracking and inequalities in reading literacy of second-generation and non-immigrant students in 28 Western countries. The article takes into account that next to between-school tracking, there are also more subtle forms of tracking, such as tracking within schools or classes. By elaborating how the distinct mechanisms of different tracking characteristics generate achievement inequalities, I assume that any negative effects of tracking on second-generation immigrant students’ achievements are primarily driven by differences in the quality of school environments. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 are used and multilevel regression analysis with country-fixed effects are applied. The findings reveal that a higher tracking degree is related to substantial disadvantages in reading literacy for immigrant children. Furthermore, a higher immigrant concentration in schools is associated with immigrant inequalities in reading performance as the degree of tracking increases, whereas unequal distributions of teacher and instructional quality were found to generate inequalities in countries with less tracking. Even though the results are only partly in line with the theory of tracking influences on immigrant achievement disadvantages, they suggest that the interplay between institutional tracking and school characteristics are crucial for learning inequalities.

Download Full-text

Three Paradoxical Effects on Academic Self-Concept Across Countries, Schools, and Students

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000332 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 231-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Herbert W. Marsh ◽

Philip D. Parker ◽

Reinhard Pekrun

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Frame Of Reference ◽

School Level ◽

Self Concept ◽

Positive Effects ◽

International Student Assessment ◽

Country Level ◽

Starting School

Abstract. We simultaneously resolve three paradoxes in academic self-concept research with a single unifying meta-theoretical model based on frame-of-reference effects across 68 countries, 18,292 schools, and 485,490 15-year-old students. Paradoxically, but consistent with predictions, effects on math self-concepts were negative for: • being from countries where country-average achievement was high; explaining the paradoxical cross-cultural self-concept effect; • attending schools where school-average achievement was high; demonstrating big-fish-little-pond-effects (BFLPE) that generalized over 68 countries, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/non-OECD countries, high/low achieving schools, and high/low achieving students; • year-in-school relative to age; unifying different research literatures for associated negative effects for starting school at a younger age and acceleration/skipping grades, and positive effects for starting school at an older age (“academic red shirting”) and, paradoxically, even for repeating a grade. Contextual effects matter, resulting in significant and meaningful effects on self-beliefs, not only at the student (year in school) and local school level (BFLPE), but remarkably even at the macro-contextual country-level. Finally, we juxtapose cross-cultural generalizability based on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data used here with generalizability based on meta-analyses, arguing that although the two approaches are similar in many ways, the generalizability shown here is stronger in terms of support for the universality of the frame-of-reference effects.

Download Full-text