Beating the Odds: Trees to Success in Different Countries

A recursive partitioning model approach in the form of classification and regression trees (CART) was used with 2012 PISA data for five countries (Canada, Finland, Germany, Singapore-China, and the Unites States). The objective of the study was to determine demographic and educational variables that differentiated between low SES student that were overachieving or not and to explore the differences across countries. A review of the decision trees indicated contextual differences across countries, suggesting that a universal approach to facilitate overachievement for low SES students is not appropriate. Countries should look to efforts specific to their country and culture and the nature of their students when considering policies and programs for low SES students.