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Based on the TALIS 2013 and PISA 2012 linkage data, we examine the measurement properties of school instructional quality and study its relationship with mathematics performance, considering school context characteristics (school composition, teacher–student relationship, and teacher qualifications). The study adopts a cross-country perspective. In five of the seven countries, a three-dimensional framework has been confirmed to study mathematics instructional quality (disciplinary climate, supportive climate, and cognitive activation). As a common factor, disciplinary climate explains the variation in school mathematics achievement in four countries. The key is the interaction with socioeconomic status. Schools composed of students with favourable socioeconomic backgrounds reflect a disciplinary climate conducive to learning. Schools consisting of students with low socioeconomic backgrounds benefit more from a supportive climate, contributing to the reduction in the achievement gap. Schools with harmonious teacher–student relationships reflect differential effects on mathematics performance of schools consisting of students from lower- and higher-socioeconomic status families. Low-SES schools are more likely have less academically qualified teachers. School collective teacher qualification seems not directly related to school mathematics performance, but disciplinary climate mediates this link. Consistently, schools composed of students from high-socioeconomic status families tend to perform better.

Using data from TIMSS 2015, this study investigated determinants of inequality between classrooms in mathematics performance in Sweden. Applying multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance frameworks to identify latent constructs with which to build a two-level structural equation model, this study integrated teacher certification, teacher preparedness and school emphasis on academic success into a model of inequality of outcomes and opportunities. The study found evidence that more socioeconomically advantaged classes had better prepared mathematics teachers. School culture towards academic achievement was not associated with mathematics achievement. Finally, the analyses indicated that substantial inequalities exist for students taught by specialist and non-specialist teachers.

Grounded in ‘expectancy-value’ theory, this paper reports on the psychometric properties of an instrument intended to measure students’ motivation in mathematics. The participants were 2045 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden. The Expectancy-Value Scale (EVS) was found to be suitable for early grades of primary education in measuring competence self-perceptions and subjective task values relative to the mathematics field. The results indicate a good model fit aligned with the expectancy-value theory. The EVS dimensions showed good reliability, and scalar invariance was established. However, findings also indicated high correlations between some of the EVS dimensions, which is well documented for students at this age. The findings are discussed relative to the ‘expectancy-value’ theory framework and students’ info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

BACKGROUND: Students with low socio-economic status (SES) are typically depicted as low performers and more likely to fail in school. However, a group of students, despite their background, manage to succeed in school. The capacity to overcome adversities and achieve successful educational outcomes is referred to as Academic Resilience. Research on the relationship between personality traits and academic performance shows that conscientiousness is a crucial factor in predicting academic success and resilience. However, it has also been shown that achievement is a result of an interaction between conscientiousness and students' interest in the subject. AIMS: The study aims to investigate how students' school-related perseverance and interest predict academic achievement among resilient and non-resilient pupils over time in the Swedish compulsory school setting. SAMPLE: Study subjects were a subset (N = 1,665) of the sampled compulsory school students from the 1992 birth cohort in the evaluation through follow-up (ETF) database. METHODS: Multigroup structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent variable interaction was used. Measurement invariance was tested to examine the comparability of the constructs across groups. RESULTS: The results suggest that resilient students rely heavily on both perseverance of effort and interest in school subjects to succeed in their education. For the non-resilient group, the later perseverance level was conditioned on the level of the interest, and neither their early nor later grade interest was related to their achievement. CONCLUSIONS: The academically resilient students displayed more consistency in interest and perseverance over time, which might explain their relative success compared to the non-resilient group.

This report attempts to explain the conceptual and technical base when linking two international large-scale assessment studies set up by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013 (TALIS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 (PISA). The linking procedure facilitates the investigation of mathematics performance at the student, teacher and school level and shed light on the effectiveness and efficiency of school systems when it comes to mathematics education. Data from eight national contexts: Australia, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Singapore and Spain are used to link TALIS and PISA. International large-scale assessments have the potential to boost multi-level research that fits state-of-the-art educational effectiveness models. But - as tackled in the present technical paper - this potential is often flawed by the methodological difference in the study design. The present technical report presented solutions, procedures, strategies to develop overarching databases that link datasets from earlier studies; more specifically PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013. The report analyzed characteristics about the instruments, the variable frameworks, and especially the specific sampling strategies. The report emphasized four critical aspects in the context of merging datasets: - Looking for a shared student variables value: TALIS-PISA Link 2013 and PISA 2012 can be linked by looking at data from 15-year-old students and their mathematics teachers. - Looking for a shared anchor variable to link the data sets: the link between the TALIS and PISA data set depends on a shared school ID. This implies that - in view of the analyses - data should be aggregated at the school level. - A time gap was observed in the administration of the two performance indicator studies; that again differed on the hemisphere where the study was set up: teacher work experience was used to look for a valid choice to sample teachers that were actually teaching to the students in the PISA sample. - Not all teachers in both studies were relevant to be linked to students’ PISA mathematics performance: a five-step sample selection procedure was adopted to identify the relevant mathematics teachers whose data can be used in the merged database to be linked to student achievement. Taking into account four critical issues and applying five selection criteria, 3473 teachers, teaching to 31548 students in 1115 schools have been selected. At a technical level, further checks were needed to screen the original dataset and to apply corrections. The newly available dataset forms a promising basis to study theoretical models about the relationship between student, teacher and school-level variables.The report can potentially stimulate future research studies endeavours to advance the understanding of multilevel perspectives of PISA students’ mathematics learning outcome in various national contexts building on the educational effectiveness dynamic model.

Equity and quality are the common goals to strive for in the Nordic education systems. Yet the mechanisms through which the separate education systems approach these goals have become more diverse. The chapter provides evidence in support of the different facets of teacher quality, such as self-efficacy, as well as teacher-students relations concerning their importance for teachers’ job satisfaction across the Nordic countries. Diversities, however, were also observed. The results from the TALIS 2013 model outlined two subgroups of the Nordic countries with similar mechanisms: the Norway-Sweden and the Denmark-Finland groups. No distinctive group was found in the TALIS 2018 results, producing more country-specific patterns, such as the importance of social utility value for Norway, adverse classroom composition in Sweden or teacher effective professional development positively impacting the personal and social utility values of teachers in Finland. These observed diversities and changing patterns may find their reasons in the gradually dissolved unity of the Nordic model by the different reform actions taken in recent years, such as in the example of Sweden, and in the long-term prerequisites for the teaching profession, where Finland is the country that stands out.

Over the past six decades, the ILSA has changed the landscape of Swedish student assessment in many positive ways; however, it also has identified several areas of problems. In this chapter, we start with a general introduction of Swedish compulsory education system, followed by a retrospective view of the ILSA studies in Sweden, their benefits and drawbacks. This set the scene for student assessment within the framework of ILSA in Sweden today. Further, we elaborate upon the strength and weakness of Swedish grading system and national test system relating to educational quality and equity. While the national assessment systems failed to provide valid information about the trend in academic achievement, ILSA has functioned as an external support monitoring academic outcomes and educational equity over time. We present examples to illustrate the strength in the ILSA studies. Finally, we extend our perspective to the future possibilities and directions that ILSA can contribute to quality assurance in Swedish school system in general and student assessment in particular.

The main aim of the study was to identify school characteristics that can reduce the relation between socio-economic status (SES) and achievement, so that equity of educational outcomes can be improved. Data from 50 countries participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted in 2011, focusing on Grade 8 mathematics, was analysed. Two-level random slopes models fitted at school- and student-levels were used to investigate the influence of quality and quantity of instruction, school climate, and school SES on the within-school regression slope for achievement on SES. The results showed school SES to be the strongest determinant of slope differences across schools and educational systems. Whether school SES relates negatively or positively to the within-school regression of achievement on student SES is an indicator of whether the educational system is compensatory or anti-compensatory with respect to student SES.

The current study investigated the spatial restructuring of the Swedish upper secondary school market over time, which happened as a consequence of school choice reform started in the early 1990s. ...

International assessments of mathematics have shown persistent and widely intensified socioeconomic inequalities in achievement worldwide over the last decades. Such achievement gaps may partly be due to the differences in students’ personal and family characteristics. They may also be attributed to the schooling itself if school systems provide differentiated opportunity to learn (OTL) for children from privileged versus disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous research on the mechanism of the joint relationship among socioeconomic status (SES), academic achievement, and OTL produced inconclusive results. The main aim of the present study is to test whether schooling actually perpetuates social inequality in achievement, by reanalyzing PISA data. Specifically, we scrutinize the construct validity of the OTL measure in PISA that has been used in previous research. Our analyses reveal two latent dimensions of the OTL indicators in PISA, namely an unbiased OTL dimension and a self-concept dimension. The relationship between social background and mathematics achievement was only weakly mediated by OTL, when effect of students’ self-concept was controlled for. Our results suggest that the previous research finding that schooling perpetuates social gaps in mathematics performance suffers from a construct validity problem.

Entrenched socioeconomic inequalities in achievement have been observed in international assessments for decades, with previous research suggesting that these inequalities may be exacerbated by differentiation in the opportunities provided to various social groups. Much previous research in this field has been US-based or subject to measurement issues. This study investigated socioeconomic inequalities in outcomes and opportunities using four cycles of international assessment data across 78 countries. Further, the paper questions whether inequalities in opportunities are related to inequalities in outcomes. The findings indicate global social inequalities in mathematics and science outcomes, while inequality of opportunity was particularly concentrated in economically advanced countries. Little evidence of the perpetuation of socioeconomic inequality in achievement through differentiated educational provision was found.

This article explores preschool teachers’ professional profiles in Sweden. Considering various educational policy reforms in Sweden the last decades, this study is grounded in interactionist perspectives and Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model. A set of multiple professional indicators related to preschool teachers’ educational background, personal characteristics and their working context were analysed applying latent class analysis as a person-oriented approach. The sample consists of 698 preschool teachers across different preschools in 46 municipalities in Sweden. The analysis revealed two subgroups of preschool teachers’ professional profiles: (a) late educated (after the introduction of preschool curriculum in 1998) and (b) early educated (before the introduction of preschool curriculum in 1998). The pattern of graduation year, experience, continuous professional development and specified assignment in preschool was the most distinctive pattern across these profiles. Findings add to the on...

The main aim of this study was to investigate the development of the correlation between family education and student achievement in Sweden, which previous research has found to be stable, in spite of increasing school segregation and widening differences in levels of achievement between schools. Based on register data for populations of graduates from compulsory school between 1988 and 2014, correlations between parental education and student grades were estimated. The correlation was found to increase by .04 units between the early-1990s and 2014. The main reasons why this has not been found in previous research are that too coarse a categorization of parental education has been used, a declining quality of measurement of grades, and demographic changes related to immigration.

This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequality in student performance. We were interested in studies of explanatory variables that are amenable to educational policy interventions. To identify such publications, we developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted an electronic search based on six databases. We also manually searched two existing hand-picked reviews. After duplicates were removed, the search resulted in 814 references, of which a total of 35 studies met the eligibility criteria. The included studies investigated diverse topics such as learning environments inside and outside of school, educational expenditure, teacher education, autonomy, accountability, differentiation, and competition from private schools. Most studies are descriptive in nature and their findings are sometimes ambiguous. Despite these limitations, we tentatively conclude that the opportunity of choice reinforces inequality. Measures that target social selection can be effective.

The aims of the study were to examine changes in school segregation across different types of municipalities between 1998 and 2011 in Sweden, and to explore the extent to which these changes are the consequences of school choice. Multilevel models were applied to register data using a counterfactual approach. The results showed that school segregation with respect to migration background and educational achievement had increased over time, while social segregation remained rather constant. The degree of school segregation varied largely across different municipality types, and it was concluded that school choice was a determinant of school segregation. The findings have strong policy implications and are discussed in relation to the recent educational reforms in Sweden.

Given the impact of international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) on policy-making in different educational systems around the world, this study aims to examine whether national mathematics curricula in different educational systems harmonize over time. Data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is used to explore this issue. In addition to background questionnaires given to students, teachers and schools, a curriculum questionnaire was completed by each national research coordinator (NRC) in all participating countries in each TIMSS cycle. In the present study, data from 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 was used. The analyses focused on the information about the extent to which the national mathematics curriculum covered certain topics in the subdomains of mathematics tested in TIMSS Grade 8. Growth curve modeling and latent profile analyses were applied to uncover the development trend and countries’ unobserved profiles in mathematics content domains of Number, Algebra, Geometry, and Data. Three clusters of countries were identified. Most countries belonged to the same profile in the later cycles of TIMSS. The study found indications of a general harmonization with respect to number of topics covered in countries’ curricula over time, thus contributing to discussions of policy implications of a global curriculum.

Background In a previous study, the total, direct and indirect effects of parental education on reading, mathematics and science achievement have been estimated for Grade 4 pupils of 37 countries that participated in PIRLS and TIMSS 2011 studies (Gustafsson et al. in TIMSS and PIRLS 2011: Relationships among reading, mathematics, and science achievement at the fourth grade—implications for early learning. pp 183–289, 2013). Several theories proposed to account for the variation were reviewed. With this previous study as the point of departure, the current study was to identify determinants and mechanisms that can explain the substantial variation found in the relationship between parental education and school achievement across the 37 countries in the previous study. Methods The effects estimated in Gustafsson et al. (TIMSS and PIRLS 2011: Relationships among reading, mathematics, and science achievement at the fourth grade—implications for early learning. pp 183–289, 2013) formed the empirical data of the current study. In a first step of analysis the total, direct and indirect effects were described for the 37 countries, focusing on countries with a high and low level in these three respects. In the second step of analysis, two indicators of characteristics of the educational system, the Gini index as a measure of degree of economic inequality and the HDI as a measure of general societal development, were related to the estimated coefficients. Results We found different patterns of relations with the direct and the indirect effects of parental education, and the direct and indirect effects therefore tended to cancel, so that small or no total effects were found. We also found opposite results when we investigated bivariate correlations and when we investigated partial correlation with HDI and Gini. Conclusion The pattern of empirical findings thus is more complex than expect. There is, potentially, a large number of factors outside of the home which may be of importance mediating the relation between parental education and student achievement. However, the data available for the current study does not allow investigation of such factors, so this will be tasks for further research.

This study examines the changes in educational inequality at the school‐ and individual‐levels in 1991 and 2001. Comparisons are made between the IEA Reading Literacy Study 1991 and the so called 10‐Year Trend Study in PIRLS 2001. The between‐school differences in reading achievement variance and the size of the relationship between SES and reading achievement at school‐level are the two main focuses. Applying a two‐level structural equation modeling technique, it was found that the between‐school differences in reading achievement were greater in RLS 2001 than in RLS 1991, and the school SES effect has been strengthened over time. These changes indicate that educational inequality in Sweden has increased over time. Some possible explanations to these changes are discussed with reference to school reforms and demographic changes.

This study examined changes in the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on reading achievement at individual and school levels between 1991 and 2001. Data from 9 countries that participated in both the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study 1991 and the Trend Study in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 were included in the analyses. The hypotheses of increased between-school differences of reading achievement and a higher SES effect on reading were tested by applying a 2-level 2-group structural equation modelling technique and a factor score approach. The hypotheses were partially confirmed by the empirical evidence from Greece, Singapore, and the USA. The explanations of these results may be the insufficient data and low statistic power. A refined hypothesis may be needed for further investigation.

In the IEA PIRLS International Report, a number of indices of reading‐related constructs were introduced for the purpose of explaining the variation in reading achievement. These indices, however, raise issues of reliability and validity, due to the way in which they are derived and due to the quality of the data. Targeting these issues, the current study investigates the measurement properties of some of these reading‐related factors by a multivariate latent variable modeling approach. The data is drawn from the PIRLS questionnaires of the fourth graders in six countries. On the basis of a series of confirmatory factor analytic models individual factor scores of these constructs are estimated. The results indicate that the most significant advantage of the suggested approach is that it makes efficient use of the available data to estimate factor scores with higher reliability and validity than the observed index scores.

How is reading literacy taught in Nordic classrooms, and how is this influenced by the curricula? How can we improve mathematics teaching in Nordic classrooms? What is the relationship between scho ...

In the present article we apply a growth mixture model using Mplus via STREAMS to delineate the mechanism underlying travel-mode choice. Three waves of an experimental field study conducted in Frankfurt Main, Germany, are applied for the statistical analysis. Five major questions are addressed: (1) whether the choice of public transport rather than the car changes over time; (2) whether a soft policy intervention to change travel mode choice has any effect on the travel-mode chosen; (3) whether one can identify different groups of people regarding the importance allocated to monetary and time considerations for the decision of which travel mode to use; (4) whether the different subgroups of people have different initial states and rates of change in their travel-model choices; (5) whether sociodemographic variables have an additional effect on the latent class variables and on the changes in travel-mode choice over time. We also found that choice of public transportation in our study is stable over time. Moreover, the intervention has an effect only on one of the classes. We identify four classes of individuals. One class allocates a low importance to both monetary and time considerations, the second allocates high importance to money and low importance to time, the third allocates high importance to both, and the fourth allocates a low importance to money and a high importance to time. We found no difference in the patterns of travel-mode changes over time in the four classes. We also found some additional effects of sociodemographic characteristics on the latent class variables and on behavior in the different classes. The model specification and the empirical findings are discussed in light of the theory of the allocation of time of Gary Becker.