General Intelligence and Socioeconomic Status as Strong Predictors of Student Performance in Latin American Schools: Evidence From PISA Items

Carmen Flores-Mendoza,Ruben Ardila,Miguel Gallegos,Norma Reategui-Colareta

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.632289

Abstract

Numerous technical—scientific reports have demonstrated that student performance variability is linked to several factors, especially socioeconomic factors. For a century, differential psychology has shown that students’ socioeconomic level has little or no relevance in the explanation of student performance variation when the intellectual factor is considered. Here we present a study on a student samples (N = 1264) aged 13 to 16 yrs, enrolled in 32 schools from five Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru). A short version of the PISA test (composed by 16 items) and five cognitive measures were administered, in addition to a socioeconomic questionnaire. Multilevel analysis (marginal models) indicated that general intelligence (g-factor) and socioeconomic school status were robust predictors, and the students’ socioeconomic status very little accounted for the variation in the PISA test. This study concludes that education policy must incorporate individual differences in intelligence, beyond socioeconomic variables, as an important predictor variable in student performance studies.

Highlights

At the end of the 1990s, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) envisaged the increasing importance of education in the development of skills that would allow citizens to adapt and absorb rapid changes in technology
Considering the high internal consistency of the PISA test-short version test used in the present study (α 0.807) we inferred that the PISA test required more g than a specific cognitive ability, which explain the higher correlation obtained in the present study compared to the previous studies
This paper presents results of the SLATINT project, a Latin America initiative that verified the human capital present in the region through assessment of student and intelligence performance

Summary

Introduction

At the end of the 1990s, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) envisaged the increasing importance of education in the development of skills that would allow citizens to adapt and absorb rapid changes in technology. The OECD developed and promoted in 2000 a large-scale assessment of 15-year-old students through a test termed PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment). The PISA test is an assessment tool, conducting three-yearly surveys, that scores reading, mathematic and scientific literacies. The focus of this assessment is not surveying memorization or simple knowledge. The PISA test items focus on how well students apply knowledge to solve real-world problems (OECD, 2001). In the first survey (2000–2001) 43 countries participated in the PISA assessment, which increased to 79 countries in the last survey, conducted in 2018. After seven PISA surveys, the result has been consistent, where students from developed countries present better performance than students from developing

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