National tests and the wellbeing of primary school pupils: new evidence from the UK

There is growing concern about the mental wellbeing of young people, including how this is related to national tests. This is a particularly important policy issue in England, where it is claimed that the end of primary Key Stage 2 tests cause schools, pupils and teachers stress. I investigate this issue using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, comparing the wellbeing of pupils in England (measured around the point they are sitting their Key Stage 2 tests) to the rest of the UK (where Key Stage 2 tests are not taken). No evidence is found that the Key Stage 2 tests in England is associated with lower levels of happiness, enjoyment of school, self-esteem or children’s mental wellbeing. Likewise, no evidence is found that children who are happier, more self-confident or with higher levels of wellbeing obtain higher Key Stage 2 test scores

The mental health of adolescents in England: How does it vary during their time at school?

The wellbeing of young people has become an important education policy issue, with suggestions that mental health problems amongst young people have increased in recent years. Experiences at school are thought to be a key factor contributing to mental ill-health amongst adolescents. Yet surprisingly, little is known about how mental health outcomes vary across school year groups, independent of the effects of age. This article contributes new evidence on this issue, drawing upon large-scale health data from England. We find substantial growth in mental health problems as young people progress through secondary school. Yet this seems to be driven by the effects of age, rather than due to movement into more senior school year groups. We consequently conclude that evidence of a direct link between school year group and young people’s mental health remains relatively weak

Has Peak PISA passed? An investigation of interest in International Large-Scale Assessments across countries and over time

International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) have had significant impact on education policy across the globe. But has interest in ILSAs now started to wane? This paper presents new evidence on this issue, exploring how the amount of attention three major ILSAs receive compares across countries, between studies and over time. Using information on Google searches made for ILSAs over time, we illustrate how results from TIMSS and PIRLS results receive significantly less attention than those from PISA. Globally, interest in ILSAs seems to have peaked in 2012 and has been on the decline since. There is however substantial cross-country variation, with increasing interest in some countries over the last decade (e.g. Sweden, Turkey) offsetting some of the fall in others (e.g. Japan, German). Moreover, while changes in scores seem to be related to the attention that ILSAs receive, other factors – including their current position in political and policy narratives – are also likely at play

Teacher surveys: The pros and cons of random probability surveys versus teacher panels

Two commonly used approaches to capturing information about teachers are random probability surveys and teacher panels. This paper reviews the strengths and limitations of these two approaches in the context of capturing information about the teacher workforce. A case study is then presented drawing upon recent teacher survey data collections in England. Although both designs should continue to play an important role in generating evidence about the teaching profession, random probability surveys of teachers should be used sparingly, and only when they will be properly resourced

PISA 2018 in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales: Is the data really representative of all four corners of the UK?

PISA is an influential international study of the achievement of 15-year-olds. It has a high profile across the devolved nations of the UK, with the results having a substantial impact upon education policy. Yet many of the technical details underpinning PISA remain poorly understood—particularly amongst non-specialists—including important nuances surrounding the representivity of the data. This paper provides new evidence on this issue, based upon a case study of PISA 2018. I illustrate how there are many anomalies with the data, with the combination of nonresponse, exclusions from the test and technical details surrounding eligibility criteria leading to total nonparticipation rates of around 40% (amongst the highest anywhere in the world). It is then shown how this leads to substantial uncertainty surrounding the PISA results, with clear evidence of bias in the sample for certain parts of the UK. I conclude by discussing how more transparent reporting of the technical details underpinning PISA is needed, at both a national and international level

Socioeconomic gradients in children's cognitive skills: are cross-country comparisons robust to who reports family background

The international surveys of pupil achievement—Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)—have been widely used to compare socio-economic gradients in children’s cognitive abilities across countries. Socio-economic status is typically measured drawing on children’s reports of family or home characteristics rather than information provided by their parents. There is a well-established literature based on other survey sources on the measurement error that may result from child reports. But there has been little work on the implications for the estimation of socioeconomic gradients in test scores in the international surveys, and especially their variation across countries. In this article, we use the PISA and PIRLS data sets to investigate the consistency of parent and child reports of three common socio-economic indicators (father’s occupation, parental education, and the number of books in the family home) across a selection of OECD countries. Our results suggest that children’s reports of their father’s occupation provide a reliable basis on which to base comparisons across countries in socio-economic gradients in reading test scores. The same is not true, however, for children’s reports of the number of books in the home—a measure commonly used—while results for parental education are rather mixed

Statistical Analysis Plan: Schools Partnership Programme

The Education Development Trust (EDT)’s School Partnership Programme (SPP) is a structured approach to cluster-based school collaboration, through the provision of a coherent and consistent approach to peer review that aims to drive improvement across all schools involved in the cluster. The programme aims to develop a culture of partnership working through school self-evaluation, peer review and school-to-school support

Income Inequality, Intergenerational Mobility, and the Great Gatsby Curve: Is Education the Key?

It is widely believed that countries with greater levels of income inequality also have lower levels of intergenerational mobility. This relationship, known as the Great Gatsby Curve (GGC), has been prominently cited by high-ranking public policymakers, bestselling authors, and Nobel Prize–winning academics. Yet, relatively little crossnational work has empirically examined the mechanisms thought to underpin the GGC—particularly with regard to the role of educational attainment. This paper uses the cross-nationally comparable Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data set to shed new light on this issue. We find that income inequality is associated with several key components of the intergenerational transmission process—including access to higher education, the financial returns on education, and the residual effect of parental education upon labor-market earnings. Thus, consistent with theoretical models, we find that educational attainment is an important driver of the relationship between intergenerational mobility and income inequality. We hence conclude that unequal access to financial resources plays a central role in the intergenerational transmission of advantage

The use (and misuse) of PISA in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain

In 2013 Spain introduced a series of educational reforms explicitly inspired by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 results. These reforms were mainly implemented in secondary education – based upon the assumption that this is where Spain’s educational problems lie. This paper questions this assumption by attempting to identify the point where Spanish children fall behind young people in other developed countries. Specifically, by drawing data from multiple international assessments, we are able to explore how cross-national differences in reading skills change as children age. Consideration is given to both the average level of achievement and the evolution of educational inequalities. Our conclusion is that policymakers have focused their efforts on the wrong part of the education system; educational achievement is low in Spain (and educational inequalities large) long before children enter secondary school. This study therefore serves as a note of caution against simplistic interpretation of the PISA rankings