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There is a wide debate on the convenience of grade retention for students' future cognitive development. Nevertheless, due to the endogenous characteristics of grade retention to explain students' academic performance, most of the literature fails in capturing its actual influence. In the present research, we intend to get as close as possible to the causal effect of grade retention on lower secondary education students' academic competences. In order to do this, we employ rich administrative census and longitudinal data from the most populated region of Spain (Andalusia) using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation method with student fixed-effects within-students between-academic years. Our results show a positive influence of grade retention on students' academic competences in the short term in mathematics but a null one in reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the socioeconomic and cultural segregation of students across school catchment areas using census data for the students in their second year of secondary education in Andalusia (the most populated region in Spain). The main methodology used is the Mutual Information Index, which satisfies all the desirable properties for measuring segregation. Concretely, we draw upon the additive decomposability property, which decomposes the segregation of students across schools into the different levels in which schools can be grouped, that is, catchment areas and, within catchment areas, by source of funding (public and semiprivate schools). We found that school segregation is greater than catchment areas' segregation. Additionally, statistically significant correlations are found between the level of segregation within the catchment areas and factors such as size of the catchment area, parental level of education and size of the municipality where the school is located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently we see that the approach to female sexual and reproductive rights in the field of development cooperation is experiencing a double tension: on the one hand, cooperation agents, especially Non-Governmental Development Organizations (NGDOs) have prioritized their attention over this theme, in the measure in which efforts have been redoubled to prevent, reduce and eradicate the effects of gender inequalities in different areas. On the other hand, there is a clear setback in the exercise and enjoyment of these types of rights worldwide. A possible explanatory hypothesis for this tension is that the different ways of conceptualizing female Sexual and Reproductive Rights condition the situated practices of organizations insofar as they significantly affect their reason for being and their organizational nature. That is why the objective of this work is to investigate how female sexual and reproductive rights are configured and condition the reason for being, the nature and the situated practice of NGDOs. For this, a case study is carried out, the object of which was the development cooperation system in Andalusia. A combination of quantitative - qualitative methodologies was used, although in this work we are going to prioritize the results derived from the structural and dialectical techniques as they are especially significant. This work shows that Andalusian NGDOs move between a tension marked by a proactive interest in this type of rights and a structural deficit of competences to be able to manage them effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Young people are increasingly spending more time connected to the Internet. However, it is not clear how this tool associates with students' academic achievement. In this research, the association between the use of the Internet and different measures of academic performance is explored, in order to define the profile of those students who attain a balanced academic achievement and, in this process, make an ideal use of the Internet. To this aim the methodological approach combines regression analysis based on a census data of 8th grade students in Andalusia (the most populated region in Spain) as well as interval multiobjective programing techniques. Our main finding is that, in order to simultaneously achieve a balanced performance in the four measures of academic achievement, students should use the Internet on a weekly basis for reading and doing school tasks, but should not use the Internet for social networks. • Students should use the Internet on a weekly basis for reading and doing school tasks. • Significant negative relationship between the use of social network sites and academic performance. • Interval multiobjective programming allows obtaining the profile of the student who achieves a balanced performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]