Aiming too high or scoring too low? Heterogeneous ethnic gaps in upper secondary enrollment and outcomes beyond the transition in France

The children of immigrants tend to make more ambitious enrolment choices than native students after controlling for their lower social status and prior academic achievement. Few studies have explored heterogeneity in these ethnic choice effects by both social origin and previous achievement simultaneously, so it is unclear whether results are driven by specific immigrant-native comparisons. Moreover, most research does not investigate outcomes after the educational transition, so the long-term consequences of these educational choices remain unclear. Using French panel data from the 1995 and 2007 rounds of the Panel d'Élèves du Second Degré and focusing on the children of immigrants from Africa and Turkey, I investigate immigrant-native gaps in the decision to enrol in academic upper secondary education and in outcomes after the transition. I find evidence of positive ethnic choice effects. However, I also find that they were substantial only when comparing the most disadvantaged immigrant-origin and native students (low-performing and lower class students). After the transition, immigrant-origin students were more likely to be retained, less likely to further transition to the most prestigious track and less likely to complete a track leading to tertiary education. Analyses using counterfactual reweighting suggest that large portions of these gaps were explained by positive ethnic choice effects and by the long-term impacts of immigrant-native gaps in prior academic achievement. My findings indicate that ethnic choice effects are prevalent among academically fragile students and that policy should aim to close early gaps in academic achievement to limit their persistent effects over time.

Spelling Pronunciation versus Relaxed Pronunciation in Foreign Language Teacher Education

Accurate pronunciation is an important part of learning any language, and especially when non-native students are trained to be English language teachers. Good pronunciation is more than just mastering individual sounds since it also requires understanding intonation, stress, pitch and junctures. In this respect, first things first, two functional issues come to the stage: Spelling pronunciation versus relaxed pronunciation. Spelling pronunciation depends on the use of a pronunciation that is based on spelling that includes common pronunciation of the silent vowel and consonant letters. The converse of spelling pronunciation is pronunciation spelling which produces the creation of a new spelling form on the basis of pronunciation. In this study, the contrastive positioning of spelling pronunciation versus pronunciation spelling in English words, phrases, clauses, and sentences will be analyzed to train the English teachers.

Evaluating the quality of educational services from the perspective of learners at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2018

Introduction: Students are the main recipients of educational services in universities. By investigating their expectations and perceptions of educational performance, we can provide the context for program developing to improve educational quality of services. In previous studies, the quality of services was reported from the perspective of undergraduate students. Since the expectations and the type of education are various in different stages, the current study investigates the quality of educational services based on the SERVQUAL model in postgraduate and graduate students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 321 students at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (58 bachelor, 67 masters, 58 PhD and 134 residents) by a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of educational services based on SERVQUAL model in 2018. Participants were selected by convenient sampling method and by answering the questionnaire, their opinions in five dimensions of service quality (Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, Assurance, Tangibles with a score range from 1 to 4 and the gap between the current situation and the desired between -3 to +3) were determined. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 26, paired t-test, independent sample t-test and ANOVA. Result: The results of current study indicated that there was a negative gap between students' expectations and perceptions in all five dimensions. ). In general, the largest gap was in the response dimension (-1.1 ± 0.76) and the lowest was in the confidence dimension (-0.78 ± 0.69). Among different levels of students, the largest gap is from the perspective of undergraduate students (-1.1 ± 0.7) and the smallest gap possess to the PhD students (-0.69 ± 0.57), and the total service gap from the viewpoint of the non-native students (-1.0 ± 0.6) was higher than native students (-0.85 ± 0.67). Conclusion: According to this study, the quality of services has been lower than students' achievements in all dimensions. This requires specific planning in priority areas for quality improvement.

Relationship Between Self-Concept, Self-Efficacy, and Subjective Well-Being of Native and Migrant Adolescents

In the last decade, the migrant population in Chile has substantially increased, where the rates have not only increased in the adult population, but also among children and adolescents, creating a potential for social and cultural development in the educational system. The present work analyzes the relationship between self-concept, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being in native and migrant adolescents in Santiago de Chile. The sample consisted of 406 students, 56.65% women, with an age range that fluctuated between 12 and 16 years, with an average of 13.36 years (SD = 0.96). Student’s t-tests were used to compare the average of the constructs evaluated between natives/migrants and boys/girls participants. Subsequently, two multivariate models of simple mediation were constructed, one for natives and another for migrants, which assumed subjective well-being as a dependent variable, academic self-concept as an independent variable and the general self-efficacy as a mediating variable. In both models, gender was considered as a control variable. Results show that migrant students present higher levels of academic self-concept and general self-efficacy than native students. There are no differences with regard to well-being. In the case of gender, differences are observed only for the case of general self-efficacy, where boys present higher levels. On the other hand, a partial mediation is observed for the model of native students and a total mediation for the model of migrant students. The study yielded interesting results regarding the differences in the evaluation of the constructs of self-concept, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being in both groups. Such data can be used as inputs for the development of public policies for adolescents.

Differential Impact of School Segregation in the Performance of Native and Non-Native Students in Spain

There is evidence of the impact of school segregation on students’ academic achievement, but it is debated whether the extent of this impact is dependent on students’ socioeconomic status, or on their native or non-native condition. This research addresses the problem in Spain, seeking to determine how immigrant and socioeconomic segregation affect the academic achievement of native and non-native students. With this aim, the PISA study database was specially exploited by means of two-tier Multilevel Models, estimating school segregation through the Hutchens Square Root Index. Specifically, the study estimates the influence of school segregation on students’ academic achievement in the subjects of Mathematics, Language and Science. The results confirm that school socioeconomical and immigrant segregation affect students’ academic achievement differently. Whereas socioeconomic segregation negatively affects both groups in all three subjects, immigrant segregation affects non-native students more strongly. Thus, data shows school segregation on socioeconomic grounds is always significant, and always has a considerable impact on achievement, regardless of students’ national origin. School segregation reproduces and accentuates conditions of social injustice. To counter its harmful effects, it is necessary to act first and foremost on socioeconomic segregation, as this causes the most devastating effects in education, particularly for non-native students.