Equity in Mathematics and Science Outcomes: Characteristics Associated With High and Low Achievement on Pisa 2006 in Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Equity in education is a key concern internationally; however, it is rare that this issue is examined separately for low-and high-achieving students and concurrently across different subject domains. This study examines student and school background characteristics associated with low and high achievement in mathematics and science on the Programme for International Student Assessment. Based on the results of a multilevel multinomial model of achievement for each domain, findings indicate that a greater number of the variables examined are associated with low rather than high achievement. At student level, home language, intention to leave school early, socioeconomic status, grade level, cultural capital, and books in the home are significantly associated with achievement in mathematics and science. At school level, only school average socioeconomic status is statistically significant in the models. Significant gender differences are found in the distribution of high and low achievers, which vary across the domains. In mathematics, females are more likely to be low achievers while males are more likely to be high achievers. In science, gender interacts with early school-leaving intent whereas males intending to leave school early are more likely to be in the lowachieving group than females intending to leave early. Conclusions emphasise the need for targeting resources aimed at promoting equity in outcomes at student level as well as at school level. Future work may extend the current analyses by incorporating domain-specific variables or examining crosscountry differences.

Identifying with Science: A case study of two 13-year-old ‘high achieving working class’ British Asian girls

“…Through the conceptual tools of Bourdieu, the paper explores the complexity of how two similarly positioned individuals can start to diverse in their career aspirations and identifications with science. The findings can shed light into studies which suggests that the underrepresentation of girls and minority ethnic groups in science (at post-compulsory level) to be the result of lower science attainments (Elias et al, 2006;Gilleece, Cosgrove, & Sofroniou, 2010;Thomson, 2008), since both girls in this paper are considered 'high' achievers. In this paper, the case of Samantha explicates how 'working class' British Asian schoolgirls can aspire to study 'triple science' without interest, while the case of Fay examines how her desires to be 'famous' can potentially interfere with her science education and, in particular, her academic attainment.…”

Fatores influenciadores dos resultados de matemática de estudantes portugueses e brasileiros no PISA: revisão integrativa

“…Este é um tema referenciado noutros estudos internacionais (CORDERO FERRERA; CRESPO CEBADA; SANTÍN GONZÁLEZ, 2010;FERRER;VALIENTE;CASTEL, 2010;GILLEECE;COSGROVE;SOFRONIOU, 2010).…”

Malaysian and Singaporean students’ affective characteristics and mathematics performance: evidence from PISA 2012

“…Similar results were found in PISA 2000 mathematics literacy with male students outperforming female students by 11 points across 43 participating countries (OECD 2003). However, some studies showed that female students outperformed male students (e.g., Gilleece et al 2010; Tsai and Walberg 1983). In this study, at the student level, female and male students were recoded as 0 and 1, respectively.…”