A Cross Country Prescriptive Analysis of the Efficiency of Educational Systems

CONGRESO INTERNACIONALHow does a country achieve the most efficient education system possible? We examine the efficiency of educational systems across the world using internationally comparable performance of secondary school pupils. We use OECD aggregate panel data on 39 countries across 15 years to model the most efficient combination of teacher salaries and class size to secure the maximum level of students’ achievement. Prescriptive policy evaluations are provided on how countries could make a significant improvement to their educational outcome by adjusting their educational resource inputs. We also ask if there is a trade-off between the efficiency and equity of educational provision.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The effect on students’ academic progression of relative school socioeconomic status

It has been widely studied that students’ academic achievement may be affected by the socioeconomic characteristics of their peers. Nevertheless, little is known on whether the relative position that students occupied within their primary school peers in terms of socioeconomic background could be affecting their academic progression from primary to secondary education. We make use of census and longitudinal data to analyse this issue for the lowest performer and largest Spanish region, i.e., Andalusia, by the use of a value-added methodology. Our results show that students’ relative socioeconomic position within their primary school peers may affect their academic progression, even after controlling by students’ socioeconomic status. This result highlights the relevance that not only students’ own socioeconomic background has on their future academic progression and, by extension, labour market position, but also the influence that their peers have on it.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The quality of measures of educational performance: an empirical approach

We assess whether the difference between teacher and test-based assessment at age 14 and 10 -as a measure of bias or uncertainty in assessment specifically– is linked systematically to observable pupil characteristics. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper, focused on the Spanish educational system, which has compared teacher and test-based assessments. Secondly we consider the important, but largely unknown question of whether these measures of uncertainty and bias in assessment have any relationship with pupil’s subsequent educational choices at age 16. The results suggest that the gap between test scores and teacher assessments is particularly large for female students in mathematics, who obtain significantly higher teacher assessments as compared to their test scores. This is consistent with the notion that teachers under estimate the achievement of boys in mathematics, over estimating the achievement of girls as measured by the test score. Additionally we find that students from semi-private schools (concertadas), who are more likely to be wealthier and attend schools with wealthier peers, get higher test scores, as compared to teacher assessments. This is particularly noticeable in reading- which is consistent with the idea that teachers tend to assess pupils in a relative way. Finally there is some evidence of higher probability of attendig Sciences or Social Sciences postcompulsory education for those who present higher difference between teacher and test-based assessment, although do not appear to tell a convincing story about this divergence having any real impact on post-school participation decisions.FCE

The Relative Efficiency of Educational Systems: A Cross Country Prescriptive Analysis

How does a country achieve the most efficient education system possible? We examine the efficiency of educational systems across the world using internationally comparable performance of secondary school pupils. We use OECD aggregate panel data on 39 countries across 17 years to model the most efficient combination of teacher salaries, class size and capital resources to secure the maximum level of students’ achievement. In the face of constrained education budgets prescriptive policy evaluations are provided to suggest how countries could make a significant improvement to their educational outcomes by adjusting their educational resource inputs. We also ask if there is a trade-off between the efficiency and equity of educational provision.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The effect of cultural capital on the differential educational achievement of girls and boys

One of the less discussed issues in the literature on educational production functions, in Spain, is the contribution of variables related to students’ lifestyles to explain the gender gap in terms of educational achievement. We intend to shed light on this issue by means of empirical evidence based on recent rich microdata from Andalusia (the UE region with the highest female unemployment rate and with extremely high male dropout rate before finishing compulsory education) on students’ cultural capital variables; additionally, we check whether the available measures of cultural capital have any relationship with differences by gender in pupil’s subsequent educational choices at the end of compulsory education (age 16). Once we control for “cultural capital” related variables, significant nuances arise regarding results dealing with gender differences in educational performance. Our results show, among other findings, that when parents foster cultural activities and values for their children without following the existing gender stereotypes, students’ achievement is increased, so parents must make an effort and get implied in achieving this aim. Thus, schools should insist on properly informing parents in this subject while investing in cultural resources, in order to avoid their misleading preconceived gendered ideas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Exploring the link between employment search time and reservation wages in Southern Europe

In our piece of work we are facing a two-fold problem: on the one hand, we study the behaviour of job seekers and the extent to which reservation wages and unemployment benefits play a relevant role in the transition into working life. On the other hand, we intend to find out whether the determinants of the job search process may also affect subsequent wages.transiciones laborales, prestaciones por desempleo, salarios de reserva, ganancias,earnings, transitions into work, unemployment benefits, reservation wages.

Students’ birth date and academic progression

Education laws which impose starting cut-off dates for students to begin compulsory education may be negative for those students who are born just before these cut-offs; this is because these students will be among the youngest in their classroom, while those born just after (the oldest students) will see their academic achievement increased. The current research works on this subject employing census and longitudinal data for the most populated region of Spain (Andalusia), making use of a regression discontinuity methodology. We find that the youngest students in the classroom (due to this school entry cut-off) present lower academic achievement compared to the oldest students, being this effect reduced while students progress in their education. This motivates policy interventions aimed at giving the option to parents to choose whether or not to delay their children’s access to school when the latter are too young.Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. The data used in this research has been provided by Agencia Andaluza de Evaluación Educativa, Consejería de Educación, Junta de Andalucía. This work has been partly supported by the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad under Research Project ECO2017-88883-R; by the Andalusian Regional Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprises (PAI group SEJ-532) and the postdoctoral contract from the Plan Propio signed by the Universidad de Málaga

More class time, better achievement?

Spanish press has widely criticized the fact that students spend almost their whole day at school, a practice rooted in the common belief that higher instruction time enhances students’ learning. However, in spite of this high amount of instruction time that Spanish students are receiving, their results do not seem to outstand in comparison with other countries with similar or lower instruction time. In this context, this research intends to accomplish two main objectives: the first one is to check if the amount of instruction time received by 15 year-old Spanish students actually affects their academic achievement. The second one intends to analyse if this potential influence of instruction time may be affecting Spanish Autonomous Communities in different ways, as each one is responsible for setting instruction time in its own region. In order to accomplish these objectives, the methodology employed let us isolate the effect of instruction time from other covariates by using students’ fixed effects by subject, using PISA 2009 and 2012 data. Results have shown that there is not any effect of instruction time on academic achievement, being this conclusion extended to every Autonomous Community in Spain. Further checks have corroborated the robustness of these results and have also highlighted that the effect of instruction time is a question of quality more than quantity, as students’ engagement and the classroom climate during lessons may be causing differences in academic achievement, rather than the amount of instruction time per se.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The influence of gender and social roles on academic achievement

The analysis of the influence of certain social aspects across countries on gender differences in educational achievement has gained a great relevance. In this research the main objective is to deepen into the knowledge of these cultural factors. In order to accomplish this aim, international data from many countries has been used, grouped into education system characteristics, child qualities supported socially, views and opinions on gender roles, and risk-aversion attitudes. The empirical analysis carried out has shown that it is necessary to foster entrepreneurship attitudes during students’ tertiary education, with special emphasis on girls, as they are more affected by gender stereotypes and risk-aversion in comparison to boys. In spite of the existence of unexplained gender differences, individual and country-level factors may have a different effect on the academic achievement of boys and girls.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech