PISA 2018: Australia in Focus Number 1: Academic resilience among Australian students

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged ◽

Social And Cultural Capital ◽

Senior Secondary

Socioeconomically disadvantaged students (i.e. those whose scores on a constructed measure of social and cultural capital are below a specified cut-off, usually the 25th percentile) have been found to be more likely to drop out of school, repeat a grade, achieve lower levels at senior secondary school, and score lower on tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Despite this association between socioeconomic disadvantage and poorer outcomes related to education, a percentage of students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds enjoy success at school. This apparent success despite the odds is of interest to researchers and educators alike – what, if any, characteristics do these academically resilient students share, why might this be and what can we learn from this group of students, however small, that might assist in improving outcomes for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background?

Does student grade contribute to the declining trend in Programme for International Student Assessment reading and mathematics in Australia?

Australian Journal of Education ◽

10.1177/0004944120948654 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (3) ◽

pp. 205-226

Author(s):

John Ainley ◽

Dan Cloney ◽

Jessica Thompson

Keyword(s):

Multiple Regression ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Achievement Scores ◽

Regression Methods ◽

And Gender ◽

And Mathematics ◽

Reading And Mathematics

Declines in the scores of Australian 15-year-old students from the Programme for International Student Assessment are a matter of policy interest. Some of the declines may have resulted from shifts in the age-grade distributions of students in the Programme for International Student Assessment samples. We use multiple regression methods to model the student-level effects of grade for each Programme for International Student Assessment cycle allowing for the effects of student characteristics (e.g. socioeconomic background and gender) and jurisdiction. We estimate an average net effect of grade over the Programme for International Student Assessment cycles since 2006 as 42 scale points with no difference between reading and mathematics. We explore the extent to which differences between grades in achievement and changes in the grade distributions of students contributed to changes in average Programme for International Student Assessment achievement scores. We conclude that the relatively greater decline in Grade 11, compared to Grade 10 achievement, contributed to the overall decline and that shifts in distributions may have also contributed a little to those declines.

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 ◽

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.

Should different countries participating in PISA interpret socioeconomic background in the same way? A measurement invariance approach

Revista Iberoamericana de Educación ◽

10.35362/rie8413981 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 84 (1) ◽

pp. 109-133

Author(s):

Nurullah Erylmaz ◽

Mauricio Rivera-Gutiérrez ◽

Andrés Sandoval-Hernández

Keyword(s):

Measurement Invariance ◽

Latin American ◽

Large Scale ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Large Scale Assessment ◽

Confirmatory Factor ◽

Economic Background

It has been claimed that there is a lack of theory-driven constructs and a lack of cross-country comparability in International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA)’s socio-economic background scales. To address these issues, a new socio-economic background scale was created based on Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory, which distinguishes economic, cultural and social capital. Secondly, measurement invariance of this construct was tested across countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). After dividing the countries which participated in PISA 2015 into three groups, i.e., Latin American, European, and Asian, a Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out in order to examine the measurement invariance of this new socio-economic scale. The results of this study revealed that this questionnaire, which measures the socio-economic background, was not found to be utterly invariant in the analysis involving all countries. However, when analysing more homogenous groups, measurement invariance was verified at the metric level, except for the group of Latin American countries. Further, implications for policymakers and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

A “Win-Win Exercise”? Eastern European Children in Western Europe

10.31235/osf.io/y9xc4 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nathan Isaac Hoffmann

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Western Europe ◽

Causal Effect ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Migrant Children ◽

Math Scores ◽

Science Scores ◽

The Impact

Since the end of the Cold War, millions of migrants from Eastern Europe have sought better opportunities in Western European countries, yet few studies have assessed the impact of such moves on these migrants' children. This study implements a causal inference design relying on propensity score matching in order to isolate a causal effect of migration on children’s educational outcomes. It analyzes Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores from 2012, 2015, and 2018 for children born in Albania, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the seven Former Yugoslavian countries and living in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Compared to their counterparts who remained in their countries of origin, migrant children attain lower reading, math, and science scores. Once immigrant children are matched to non-immigrants with similar propensities to migrate -- estimated based on family and socioeconomic background -- the disparity for math scores disappears, while those for reading and science remain. Children who migrate from within the EU, at older ages, who speak a foreign language at home, and who are female face greater disparities. This paper shows the need for policymakers and educational administrators to better handle the negative academic effects that migration can have on children from within Europe.

Curricular Tracking and Social Inequality in Mathematics Achievement: A Comparative Reform Study

10.31235/osf.io/uc254 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Herman Gerbert van de Werfhorst

Keyword(s):

International Student ◽

Social Inequalities ◽

Student Assessment ◽

The United States ◽

Learning Opportunities ◽

Educational Inequalities ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Comprehensive Education

Between-school segregation is high on the agenda of academic researchers and policy makers. Especially between-school tracking is heavily debated, as early tracking is said to enhance social inequalities in learning opportunities. Contemporary debates on the relevance of comprehensive education in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Germany, may learn from changes in educational inequalities that have emerged after past reforms from early tracking to comprehensive systems. We study educational inequalities by socioeconomic background in nine countries, across time. Using a comparative reform study and international student assessment data collected among eigth-graders, it is demonstrated that social inequalities more strongly reduced in systems that have transformed their educational system from tracked to comprehensive education than in systems without this reform.

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 ◽

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.

Are There Test Administrator Effects in Large-Scale Educational Assessments?

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-2241.3.4.149 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 149-159 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Oliver Lüdtke ◽

Alexander Robitzsch ◽

Ulrich Trautwein ◽

Frauke Kreuter ◽

Jan Marten Ihme

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

International Student ◽

Student Assessment ◽

Student Groups ◽

Mathematics Scores ◽

Sample Attrition ◽

Educational Assessments ◽

Test Administrator ◽

Practical Implications

Abstract. In large-scale educational assessments such as the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS) or the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), sizeable numbers of test administrators (TAs) are needed to conduct the assessment sessions in the participating schools. TA training sessions are run and administration manuals are compiled with the aim of ensuring standardized, comparable, assessment situations in all student groups. To date, however, there has been no empirical investigation of the effectiveness of these standardizing efforts. In the present article, we probe for systematic TA effects on mathematics achievement and sample attrition in a student achievement study. Multilevel analyses for cross-classified data using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedures were performed to separate the variance that can be attributed to differences between schools from the variance associated with TAs. After controlling for school effects, only a very small, nonsignificant proportion of the variance in mathematics scores and response behavior was attributable to the TAs (< 1%). We discuss practical implications of these findings for the deployment of TAs in educational assessments.