Educational scores: How does Russia fare?

Abstract

This paper uses large multi-country datasets on educational scores – namely PISA and TIMSS – to examine the factors associated with educational outcomes. In particular, it distinguishes between individual and family background factors and those emanating from the school or institutional environment. Using pooled data as well as cross sectional evidence we look at the variation across countries before looking at within country variation in Russia. We find that both in the benchmark cross-country estimates, as also those using just Russia data, a number of individual and family variables are robustly associated with better educational outcomes. Institutional variables also matter – notably student–teacher ratios and indicators of school autonomy – but there are also some clear particularities in the Russian case.