Page 194 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 194
ear ly school leaving: contempor ary european perspectives
that intending to leave school early was significantly associated with both
high and low PISA achievement, namely students who intended to leave
school early were more than twice as likely to be low mathematics achievers
than medium achievers (also high achievers). Therefore, the PISA achieve-
ment was again shown to be related with ESL.
Investigations of PISA background variables as factors in students’ in-
tentions to leave school early revealed similar results as those studies in
which ESL was explicitly measured. The JCES (2010) study found sever-
al student-level variables were associated with the intention to leave school
early, such as PISA achievement, gender, home educational resources and
books in the home, while at the school level only one variable, fee waiver,
was found to be a significant characteristic. However, for this variable an
interaction with home educational resources was found, suggesting that
homes where parents were able to provide higher levels of home educa-
tional resources might be operating in a protective manner against student
ESL intent in schools where fee waiver rates are high (i.e. with higher con-
centrations of students from low-income families). This study concluded
that, while economic deprivation impacts on ESL, a positive and supportive
home educational environment, rather than measures of parental income
or education, may be a key factor in protecting against ESL.
From their analysis of PISA 2003 data to investigate the influences
of background student characteristics on the process of dropping out of
school in Spain, Enguita, Martinez and Gomez (2010) found that Spanish
boys have a higher probability of repeating a grade than girls, and that a
smaller proportion of boys aspire to obtain a post-compulsory education-
al degree and are therefore more prone to the risk of ESL. Immigrant stu-
dents born outside of Spain were found to combine high rates of repeti-
tion and particularly low scores in the PISA test and therefore being even
more prone to the risk of ESL. At the same time, the children of immi-
grants, who were born in Spain, revealed a similar ESL-risk level as did
working-class Spanish students. The study also found that the risk of drop-
ping out is higher for students from non-nuclear families.
Some other interesting findings have been made about associations of
attitudinal factors with the intention to leave school early. An Italian longi-
tudinal study by Alverini and Lucidi (2011) used the PISA socio-economic
and cultural index as one of the controls in their path-model investigation
of the role of students’ self-determined motivation in reducing the inten-
tion to drop out from high school. The results showed that self-determined
194
that intending to leave school early was significantly associated with both
high and low PISA achievement, namely students who intended to leave
school early were more than twice as likely to be low mathematics achievers
than medium achievers (also high achievers). Therefore, the PISA achieve-
ment was again shown to be related with ESL.
Investigations of PISA background variables as factors in students’ in-
tentions to leave school early revealed similar results as those studies in
which ESL was explicitly measured. The JCES (2010) study found sever-
al student-level variables were associated with the intention to leave school
early, such as PISA achievement, gender, home educational resources and
books in the home, while at the school level only one variable, fee waiver,
was found to be a significant characteristic. However, for this variable an
interaction with home educational resources was found, suggesting that
homes where parents were able to provide higher levels of home educa-
tional resources might be operating in a protective manner against student
ESL intent in schools where fee waiver rates are high (i.e. with higher con-
centrations of students from low-income families). This study concluded
that, while economic deprivation impacts on ESL, a positive and supportive
home educational environment, rather than measures of parental income
or education, may be a key factor in protecting against ESL.
From their analysis of PISA 2003 data to investigate the influences
of background student characteristics on the process of dropping out of
school in Spain, Enguita, Martinez and Gomez (2010) found that Spanish
boys have a higher probability of repeating a grade than girls, and that a
smaller proportion of boys aspire to obtain a post-compulsory education-
al degree and are therefore more prone to the risk of ESL. Immigrant stu-
dents born outside of Spain were found to combine high rates of repeti-
tion and particularly low scores in the PISA test and therefore being even
more prone to the risk of ESL. At the same time, the children of immi-
grants, who were born in Spain, revealed a similar ESL-risk level as did
working-class Spanish students. The study also found that the risk of drop-
ping out is higher for students from non-nuclear families.
Some other interesting findings have been made about associations of
attitudinal factors with the intention to leave school early. An Italian longi-
tudinal study by Alverini and Lucidi (2011) used the PISA socio-economic
and cultural index as one of the controls in their path-model investigation
of the role of students’ self-determined motivation in reducing the inten-
tion to drop out from high school. The results showed that self-determined
194
