Abstract
This study compares the statistical methods employed for detecting underachievement, specifically the simple difference method, the regression method and the Rasch method. A sample of 1182 first- and second-year secondary students from 8 high schools in the province of Alicante participated in the study. The results showed a percentage of underachieving students that varies from 14.55% to 30.37%, depending on the statistical method employed. The Rasch method identified the highest number of underachieving students. Statistically significant differences were found between gender and type of student-underachieving and non-underachieving; however, no significant differences were detected between the course and type of student. This study confirms the importance of knowing the measurement properties of the statistical methods, how they affect the detection of underachieving students, and the main educational implications.
Highlights
Rendimiento menor al esperado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: comparación de métodos estadísticos para su identificación en España
The authors of this study, in agreement with Dittrich (2014), support the assumption that underachievement is not reserved exclusively for gifted students but to all of the students situated in different intelligence levels who may be influenced by personality factors, family-related factors and school-related factors
Previous to the identification of underachieving students with the Rasch method, the analysis of the fit of the grades was conducted based on the inter-subject comparability approach
Summary
Rendimiento menor al esperado en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria: comparación de métodos estadísticos para su identificación en España. Some students, though they exhibit good levels of individual aptitude, may exhibit poor academic performance (Chan, 1999; Colangelo, Kerr, Christensen, & Maxey, 1993; McCall, Beach, & Lau, 2000). In this sense, the term underachievement has emerged as an important construct in the field of education during the last decades, and researchers have worked to detect and identify cognitive and non-cognitive variables which are involved (Lau & Chan, 2001; Matthews & McBee, 2007; McCoach & Siegle, 2003; Montgomery, 2003). One of the most important studies was developed in Madrid by García-Alcañiz (1991)
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