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 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

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 variance conjecture on projections of the cube

We prove that the uniform probability measure $\mu$ on every $(n-k)$-dimensional projection of the $n$-dimensional unit cube verifies the variance conjecture with an absolute constant $C$ $$\textrm{Var}_\mu|x|^2\leq C \sup_{\theta\in S^{n-1}}{\mathbb E}_\mu\langle x,\theta\rangle^2{\mathbb E}_\mu|x|^2,$$ provided that $1\leq k\leq\sqrt n$. We also prove that if $1\leq k\leq n^{\frac{2}{3}}(\log n)^{-\frac{1}{3}}$, the conjecture is true for the family of uniform probabilities on its projections on random $(n-k)$-dimensional subspaces

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

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