Economic, Social And Cultural Status Research Articles

Radial Basis Function Neural Network with ensemble clustering for modeling mathematics achievement in Indonesia based on cognitive and non-cognitive factors

Mathematics achievement could be influenced by cognitive and non-cognitive factors. The potential variable of cognitive factor is metacognition, whereas non-cognitive factors include Economic, Social, and Cultural Status (ESCS), resilience, life satisfaction, happiness, pride, fear, sadness, and gender. Those variables involve numerical and categorical data. For this reason, this study aims to apply the Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) model with ensemble clustering to model the relation between cognitive and non-cognitive aspects and mathematics achievement. The RBFNN is a soft computing approach based on the neural network model and has been shown as an effective model and free of assumption. The ensemble clustering is a process in RBFNN modeling to capture the independent variables involving the numerical and categorical data. It employs K-means clustering for the numerical data and K-modes for categorical data and combines the results of those two methods. The data used in this study are published by PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) 2018. The results show that the RBFNN with ensemble clustering deliver good performance in modeling the students’ mathematics achievement based on the cognitive and non-cognitive factors in terms of prediction accuracy. Other than RBFNN model, the use of cognitive and non-cognitive factors involving in this study also contributes to the high accuracy prediction. This further emphasizes that these factors are good predictors of mathematic achievement. Additionally, we suggest the silhouette cluster validation in the clustering process, since it leads to the number of hidden neurons of the best RBFNN model.

The moderation effect of economic, social and cultural status on mediating role of adaptability and intercultural sensitivity in the relationship between self-efficacy and attitudes towards immigrants in Türkiye

This study was conducted to explore whether and how 15-year-old students’ economic, social and cultural status (ESCS), which is the indicator of the socio-economic status, moderate the mediating role of adaptability and intercultural sensitivity in the link between self-efficacy and attitudes towards immigrants in Türkiye. The study aimed to answer several research questions, including whether the intercultural sensitivity and adaptability mediate the relationship between self-efficacy and attitudes towards immigrants, and whether the students’ level of the ESCS moderates these effects. The study utilized data from PISA conducted in 2018 and involved 6890 participants from 186 schools in Türkiye. Missing values and outliers in the data set were removed, and data of 6569 15-year-old students were analyzed. Before Conditional Process Analysis, regression assumptions were checked and no problems were observed. The Conditional Process Analysis was conducted to determine the direct and indirect effects of students’ self-efficacy on their attitudes towards immigrants through the intercultural sensitivity and adaptability with the condition that no mediator causally influences another. The study found that self-efficacy was a significant predictor of the intercultural sensitivity, adaptability, and attitudes towards immigrants. The results of the mediation analyses showed that both the intercultural sensitivity and adaptability partially mediated the relationship between the self-efficacy and attitudes towards immigrants. Notably, the indirect effect through the intercultural sensitivity was larger than that of through adaptability, indicating that intercultural sensitivity plays a stronger mediating role in this relationship. The conditional effects of the self-efficacy on intercultural sensitivity, adaptability and attitudes towards immigrants varied depending on the level of the ESCS. The conditional direct effect of the self-efficacy on attitudes towards immigrants was significant for all levels of the ESCS, with the effect being strongest for individuals with relatively low ESCS and weakest for individuals with relatively high ESCS. The results also showed that students’ ESCS moderated the indirect effect of the self-efficacy on attitudes towards immigrants through the intercultural sensitivity and adaptability. This means that the relationship between self-efficacy and attitudes towards immigrants was not only mediated by intercultural sensitivity and adaptability, but also influenced by the level of the ESCS. Therefore, findings of the study suggest that the relationship between self-efficacy, the ESCS, intercultural sensitivity, adaptability, and attitudes towards immigrants is complex and multifaceted, and that it may depend on various contextual and individual factors.

The Effect of Student–Teacher Relationships on Students’ Math Motivation Across EU Countries

Using PISA 2012 data, we conducted multilevel modeling analyses to explore how student–teacher relationships (STRs) affected mathematics motivation across EU countries. We compared this relationship across high and low achievers and explored how sex, economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), ability grouping, class size, and teacher intentions moderated this relationship. Results show that positive STR was associated with higher motivation. High-ability students, boys, and high ESCS students had higher motivation, but we found no statistically significant interactions between STR and low or high ability. Class size, ability grouping, and teacher intentions had no statistically significant effects on mathematics motivation. Overall, our findings suggest that positive perceptions of STR can positively impact student motivation in mathematics and that this effect is consistent across different demographic groups. Thus, general trends around STR and motivation also apply to high-achieving populations.

A Multilevel Analysis of Factors Influencing School Bullying in 15-Year-Old Students

School bullying causes serious impacts on adolescents' physical and mental health. Few studies have explored the various factors influencing bullying by combining different levels of data. Based on the database of four Chinese provinces and cities of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018, this study used a multilevel analysis model that combined school-level variables and student-level variables to explore the influencing factors of students being bullied. Students' gender, grade repetition, truancy and arriving late for class, economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), teacher support, and parent support had significant explanatory power on school bullying on the student-level; on the school-level, school discipline atmosphere and competitive atmosphere among students had significant impacts on school bullying. Boys, students who have repeated grades, truancy and arriving late for class, and students with lower ESCS suffer from more severe school bullying. When developing school bullying interventions, teachers and parents should pay more attention to those students and provide more emotional support and encouragement to them. Meanwhile, students in schools with a lower discipline atmosphere and a higher level of competitive atmosphere experience greater levels of bullying, and schools should create more positive and friendly environments to prevent bullying events.

Multilevel Model Analysis to Investigate Predictor Variables in Mathematics Achievement PISA Data

This study aims to examine the relationship between predictor variables at the student and school levels and the interaction between variables in predicting mathematics achievement in Indonesia. Stratified analysis was implemented in Indonesia’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data. The variables of student level encompassed gender, economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), metacognition, and learning time. This study revealed that the variables of ESCS, metacognition and learning time possessed a significant positive effect on mathematics achievement. The variables of school level are class size, school type, school size, and student-teacher ratio. This study demonstrated that only the data of class size produced a significant effect on mathematics achievement. Furthermore, the interaction between the learning time and class size also significantly affected learning achievement in mathematics. Therefore, variables increasing students’ mathematics achievement are ESCS, metacognition, learning time, class size, and interaction of learning time and class size.

Examining Non-cognitive Factors Predicting Reading Achievement in Turkey: Evidence from PISA 2018

The purpose of the study was to investigate how student and teacher-related non-cognitive variables were important factors on the reading performances of Turkish students in PISA 2018. The results of the HLM analysis revealed that economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) as backround variable was considered an effective predictor of student and school reading achievement. Meta-cognitive stratejies were the most influential variables among the students’ non-cognitive variables. Besides, most of the teacher-related non-cognitive factors had significant impacts on reading achievement even after controlling all student related and backround variables. Teachers’ instructional behaviours such as adaptive instruction and teacher-directed instruction have much more influence on reading performance than other teacher behaviors. The results suggeted that fostering soft skills are essential for both students and teachers.

Factors influencing secondary school students' reading literacy: An analysis based on XGBoost and SHAP methods.

This paper constructs a predictive model of student reading literacy based on data from students who participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2018) from four provinces/municipalities of China, i.e., Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. We calculated the contribution of influencing factors in the model by using eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm and sHapley additive exPlanations (SHAP) values, and get the following findings: (1) Factors that have the greatest impact on students’ reading literacy are from individual and family levels, with school-level factors taking a relative back seat. (2) The most important influencing factors at individual level are reading metacognition and reading interest. (3) The most important factors at family level are ESCS (index of economic, social and cultural status) and language environment, and dialect is negative for reading literacy, whereas proficiency in both a dialect and Mandarin plays a positive role. (4) At the school level, the most important factors are time dedicated to learning and class discipline, and we found that there is an optimal value for learning time, which suggests that reasonable learning time is beneficial, but overextended learning time may make academic performance worse instead of improving it.

Assessing the evidence for the comparability of socioeconomic status between students with and without immigrant background in Norway and Sweden

The prerequisite for meaningful comparisons of educational inequality indicators across immigration status is the comparability of socioeconomic status (SES) measures. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) uses its index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) to provide insights into the problems of inequality across students’ socioeconomic and immigration statuses. However, missing evidence regarding the comparability of the ESCS index or its components across students with and without immigrant background challenges the accuracy of empirical inferences. Our study sheds light on the comparability of the index of household possessions (HOMEPOS) across immigration status in Norway and Sweden—two countries that continue to be two largest recipients of immigration flows among their Nordic neighbours. We tested the PISA 2018 HOMEPOS scale for the overall measurement invariance and possible differential item functioning (DIF) across three student groups with first-generation, second-generation, or no immigrant background. Several HOMEPOS items exhibited DIF within these countries. Moreover, we examined how four strategies to deal with DIF items may affect the inferences regarding educational inequalities across immigration status. The strength of the HOMEPOS–achievement association was sensitive to the choice of approach for 15-year-old immigrant students, while it remained stable and moderate for native students. Our findings encourage researchers using the HOMEPOS scale to consider the invariance testing to avoid measurement bias and provide robust evidence characterizing immigrant achievement gaps.

Who Makes an Effort? A Person-Centered Examination of Motivation and Beliefs as Predictors of Students’ Effort and Performance on the PISA 2015 Science Assessment

Each time new PISA results are presented, they gain a lot of attention. However, there are many factors that lie behind the results, and they get less attention. In this study, we take a person-centered approach and focus on students’ motivation and beliefs, and how these predict students’ effort and performance on the PISA 2015 assessment of scientific literacy. Moreover, we use both subjective (self-report) and objective (time-based) measures of effort, which allows us to compare these different types of measures. Latent profile analysis was used to group students in profiles based on their instrumental motivation, enjoyment, interest, self-efficacy, and epistemic beliefs (all with regard to science). A solution with four profiles proved to be best. When comparing the effort and performance of these four profiles, we saw several significant differences, but many of these differences disappeared when we added gender and the PISA index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) as control variables. The main difference between the profiles, after adding control variables, was that the students in the profile with most positive motivation and sophisticated epistemic beliefs performed best and put in the most effort. Students in the profile with unsophisticated epistemic beliefs and low intrinsic values (enjoyment and interest) were most likely to be classified as low-effort responders. We conclude that strong motivation and sophisticated epistemic beliefs are important for both the effort students put into the PISA assessment and their performance, but also that ESCS had an unexpectedly large impact on the results.

The Effect of School and Student-Related Factors on PISA 2015 Science Performance in Turkey

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a research project conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which evaluates the knowledge and skills gained by 15-year-old students over three-year terms. Within this study’s' scope, the PISA 2015 data were analysed to determine whether school-related factors [including the schools’ economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS)] were related to Turkish students’ science performances. Due to its nested structure, the released PISA 2015 data were analysed using the hierarchical linear model (HLM). Two models were considered to examine how Aggregated ESCS at the school level makes a difference. Thereby in model 1 shortage of educational material, staff shortage, student behaviours, and teacher behaviours were included in the analysis; in addition to these variables listed, aggregated ESCS was also added to the analysis in Model 2. The results of the analysis revealed that school-related factors - in particular, staff shortage, student behaviours, and aggregated ESCS indexes - were statistically related to students’ science performances. When the aggregated ESCS was controlled, it is observed that the school-level variables had a higher effect on students’ science performances.

Are students in Italy really disinterested in science? A person‐centered approach using the PISA 2015 data

AbstractSeen as one of the essential domains for active citizenship, examining how students relate to science has become crucial. Based on a person‐centered approach, this article investigates self‐related dispositions and motivation in science using the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data set. By employing a latent profile analysis, student profiles were investigated among 11,583 15‐year‐old‐students in Italy. Five distinct student groups were identified. The index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), immigrant background, gender, study programs, and the accompanying learning environment were also inspected. Each group was observed against particular subdomains in science competence in line with the PISA framework and environmental awareness. The results indicate the profiles differed on the examined covariates and showed distinct patterns relative to achievement and environmental awareness. However, differences in achievement between the profiles could not be explained by students’ variability in immigrant background or ESCS across the examined groups.

Role of teacher-related factors and educational resources in science literacy: An international perspective

The study evaluated the relationship among teaching, leadership, teacher certification, student and teacher number related factors, and index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS), and science literacy from an international comparative perspective. 2015 dataset of the Programme for International Student Assessment for Turkey, Singapore, the United States, Korea, Italy, and Brazil was used. Two-level hierarchical linear models were established for analysis. Results revealed that school ESCS was the best predictor of science literacy across six countries and additionally teacher-related factors came to the forefront of science literacy performance. The study underlined policymakers should focus primarily on policies that increase equity in education. Furthermore, the effectiveness of investments made in factors related to leadership, teacher certification, the number of students and teachers, which contribute very little to science literacy performance, need to be more questioned. Inferences about the findings were discussed in detail, and recommendations for further research were made.

School Leadership in Spain. Evidence from PISA 2015 assessment and Recommendations

ABSTRACT There is important empirical evidence that shows that quality of leadership at a school level is one of the factors with the greatest impact on students’ performance. The purpose of this article is to provide territorialized diagnosis of quality of school leadership in Spain and its regions based onPISA2015 Spanish sample. Several quantitative indicators of leadership are defined for this purpose. The relationship between school leadership and economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), because of its interest in defining new educational compensation policies has been analyzed. In addition, leadership indicators by type of school (public, charter, and private school) to compare the predominant leadership models in each of them, have been considered. Our main results reveal: (a) low percentages for principals who apply key forms of school leadership with sufficient frequency; (b) the weakness of public versus private schools, whether sustained by public funds or not, in leadership practices with the greatest impact; (c)significant differences between regions for all the leadership indicators considered; (d) an association between leadership and academic performance whose strength is close to 20%. From these empirical results, different recommendations are made in the field of educational policies and practices.

Indirect Effect of Economic, Social, and Cultural Status on Immigrant Students’ Science Performance Through Science Dispositions: A Multilevel Analysis

Determining the ethnic differences in academic performance among immigrant students is important in terms of adapting them into the system they live in. Examining the variables related to students’ performance will be a guide in overcoming the issue. The purpose of this study is to examine the direct effect of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) on science performance and the indirect effect of ESCS on the relationship between science dispositions and science literacy in Canadian immigrant students using hierarchical linear modeling. Data were obtained from Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 science literacy test and student questionnaire and data sets were provided from the official website of PISA. The results of the research show that ESCS had a direct and indirect effect through science dispositions with medium to large on science performance of immigrant students. The impacts of significant variables were discussed and implications for further research were provided.

¿PUEDEN LOS PADRES DE ESTUDIANTES DE 15 AÑOS INFLUIR EN SU RENDIMIENTO EN CIENCIAS?

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between parental involvement and student science achievement using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Since it is not possible to eliminate the differences in students’ economic, social and cultural status (ESCS), it is vital to understand which strategy could be most effective to promote equity in different school systems. Among the possible strategies, parental involvement has recently been conceived as a relevant factor. Data from a representative sample of 15-year-old Italian students who participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 were analyzed. The Italian data were compared with data from EU countries from the Mediterranean area that are culturally similar to Italy and that participated in the optional parent questionnaire, namely, France, Malta, Portugal, and Spain. Students completed the PISA test, and their parents completed the optional questionnaire that included questions regarding students’ ESCS, attitudes and beliefs regarding science and their expectations regarding their children’s educational careers.The model was successful in explaining the PISA test scores in science: the predicted model showed a good fit to the data with 25% of the variance explained. The results showed that ESCS contributed to the prediction of science achievement; furthermore, the results evidenced the positive, significant effects of parental involvement factors mediating the relationship between ESCS and PISA test achievement, especially in France, Malta and Portugal. Although the mediation effects were not large, they were statistically significant for all countries considered and suggested that parental involvement plays a mediating role in the effects of ESCS on science achievement, as evidenced by the significant indirect effects observed in the SEM analysis. Increasing parental participation could be a useful intervention to reduce ESCS-related differences in achievement.

U.S. Underperformance in an International Context

Background/Context Scholars have attributed the underperformance of U.S. students relative to students in other high-income countries to unequal access to high-quality educational environments. Poor students are presumed to do disproportionately worse on international achievement tests and, consequently, to pull down the U.S. average. Conversely, high-socio-economic-status (SES) students in the United States, who are among the wealthiest in the world, are presumed to outperform other rich students. Purpose/Objective/Research Question Despite these common assumptions regarding the performance of different SES groups in the United States, little research has empirically examined the extent to which these assumptions are correct. As such, we seek to benchmark low-, middle-, and high-SES students in the United States relative to comparable groups in other countries in order to contextualize U.S. performance. Data Analysis We analyze 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics achievement for 42 high-income countries. We average scores for low-, middle-, and high-SES groups within each country, using PISA's index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) index to generate categories. We then generate grand means for all countries in our sample to have an overall benchmark for each group. To calculate overall country scores and SES group scores, we use PISA-specific plausible values techniques. We use 12 points to identify meaningful achievement differences. Findings/Results Contrary to conventional wisdom regarding the performance of students in the United States on PISA, poor students do not disproportionately pull down U.S. scores; relative to poor students around the world, poor students in the U.S. are average, despite being among the most socioeconomically disadvantaged. Moreover, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the richest students in the United States do not exhibit stellar performance and are average compared with other rich students globally, despite being among the richest in the world. Middle-SES students in the United States, however, perform 17 points below the average for all middle-SES students in the 42 countries we examined, suggesting that they are nearly half a school year behind middle-SES students around the world. Conclusions/Recommendations Although common explanations for U.S. PISA achievement may seem logical, they are not always correct. Such incorrect assumptions overlook significant educational concerns that could be shaping educational policies. Considering our findings, the United States needs to address the within-country SES-based achievement gap, but it also needs to address the gap between the United States and other countries. While policy makers should continue to focus on economically disadvantaged students, there are systemic concerns with the U.S. education system that prevent the academic success of students across the class spectrum.

Predictive Validity of SES Measures for Student Achievement

ABSTRACTThis study aims to identify which socio-economic status (SES) variables have the best predictive validity for academic achievement, based on the international data sets of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012, 2009, 2006, and 2003. From among 10 SES measures, two composite variables - Index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) and Home possessions (HOMEPOS) - showed superior predictive power for student achievement. Their pan-cultural correlations with the PISA 2012 mathematics achievement were r = .40 and r = .36, respectively. Parental occupation status (r = .33) outperformed all other single measures of SES, including parental education (r = .29). Only two SES variables (i.e., family wealth and home possessions) showed non-linear relationships with academic achievement. We conclude with practical implications and recommendations for using SES measures as predictors of student achievement in educational research and point to the importance of a theoretical alignment between SES measures and particular issues to be addressed.

The impact of economic, social and cultural conditions on educational attainments

This paper aims at investigating the effect of Economic Social and Cultural Status (ESCS) on the educational performances of students, using two waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey of OECD (2009, 2012). The analysis is conducted at student level for all countries included in the PISA sample. The estimates are based on the Conditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), applied for the first time in the Slack Based Measure (SBM) version. This method allows a detailed evaluation of the additional effort the students should do when they are operating in an ESCS that has a comparative disadvantage. The unprecedented use of a conditional non-radial model of efficiency, provides evidences of a significant effect of the ESCS on performances, with a strong heterogeneity among students, and countries. It follows that some problems with education may not be due to the education systems themselves, but to the economic, social and cultural gaps, which determine a persistence of inequality of opportunity. Thus, public policies are needed to foster virtuous paths to reduce disparities among students with different socioeconomic background both between and within systems.

The skills related to the early reading acquisition in Spain and Peru.

This paper deals with the skills related to the early reading acquisition in two countries that share language. Traditionally on reading readiness research there is a great interest to find out what factors affect early reading ability, but differ from other academic skills that affect general school learnings. Furthermore, it is also known how the influence of pre-reading variables in two countries with the same language, affect the development of the reading. On the other hand, several studies have examined what skills are related to reading readiness (phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, naming speed, linguistic skills, metalinguistic knowledge and basic cognitive processes), but there are no studies showing whether countries can also influence the development of these skills.Our main objective in this study was to establish whether there were differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between Spanish (119 children) and Peruvian (128 children), five years old children assessed in their own countries and after controlling Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS). The results show that there are significant differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between these two samples. It's especially relevant, in these results, that the main predictor in a regression study was the country of origin, explaining a higher percentage of variance than other variables such as age differences, in months, or gender. These findings corroborate the results obtained in other studies with migrant population.

Determining the Relationships between Selected Variables and Latent Classes in Students’ PISA Achievement

The purpose of this study was to identify the multilevel latent classes for reading, mathematics, and science success of the students, who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 from Turkey and to determine the predictive ability of i) students‟ perseverance, ii) their openness to problem solving, iii) their economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), and iv) resources of school in relation to the determined student and school classes using a multilevel approach. The population of this research was school principals and all the 15-year-old students, who attended PISA 2012 in Turkey. Analyses were conducted with the data obtained from a total of 3,196 students and 169 school principals. In the first step, a multilevel latent class analysis was used to investigate the number of these classes in schools reading, mathematics, and science success of the students. Then, a three-step analysis was undertaken to determine the predictive ability of the chosen variables for the identified classes. The results indicated that all the chosen variables significantly predicted the school-level latent class membership. Moreover, analyses suggested that the students‟ ESCS was the most important factor affecting their achievement.