The Evolution of School Failure Risk During the 2000 Decade in Spain: Analysis of PISA Results with a Two-Level Logistic Model

Abstract

School failure has been one of the principal problems of the Spanish educational system during recent decades. This paper offers a perspective of the evolution of the factors that have had a significant influence over the risk of school failure considering personal, household and school characteristics through multilevel logistic regression analyses of PISA 2000PISA , 2003PISA , 2006PISA and 2009 Keywords: school failure; multilevel logistic regression; PISA; compulsory education.Resumen: El fracaso escolar ha sido uno de los principales problemas del sistema educativo español durante las últimas décadas. Este trabajo ofrece una perspectiva de la evolución en los factores que tienen una influencia significativa sobre el riesgo de fracaso escolar considerando características personales, familiares y de las escuelas por medio de un análisis de regresión con un modelo logístico multinivel para los micro datos de PISA

Working with Reading to Learn in a bilingual primary school: Genres, literacy, inclusion

“…Interestingly, over the school years studied (K-7/8), the 5/6 grade range had the highest percentage of pupils with this growth. As is well known, these are key years for the role of literacy in school success, the point at which many pupils are beginning to fall behind (see, e.g., Adams, 1990;Chall et al, 1990;Gee, 2015), as it is the age when learning to read becomes reading, alone, to learn. From this period on, pupils will find little support in class for reading or writing, as there will rarely be a focus on the language of school subjects.…”

“…It is a commonplace that primary education plays a vital role in the educational and professional future of the citizens of a country. This is is when literacy builds its foundations and also the time where these may fail children, since falling behind at school tends to have its roots in literacy problems (Chall et al, 1990;Guio Jaimes & Choi de Mendizábal, 2014). We clearly have a challenge in this area, since studies of literacy levels in Spain show a large percentage of low-achievers at mid-primary (PIRLS, Mullis et al, 2017) and mid-secondary school (PISA, OECD, 2019).…”

“…Underachievement in both the primary and secondary years of schooling is closely related to pupils abandoning school early. This is a key area of concern for the European Council (2020) and their data show it is considerably higher in some regions of Spain than the EU average (Council of Europe, 2020b;Guio-Jaimes & Choi de Mendizábal, 2014). While there has recently been improvement, still a fifth of male pupils left school in 2020 without obtaining the certificate for completion of obligatory secondary education (Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, 2021).…”