Page 197 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 197
contextualising ear ly school leaving with pisa r esults
contrast with the previously mentioned findings of Marks (2007) and oth-
ers that school-level measures showed no association with ESL. However,
this contrast may stem from the fact the first studies used an explicit meas-
ure of ESL while the above-mentioned studies employed an individual’s low
PISA achievement as a proxy for ESL. The second set of studies therefore
reveals the well-known finding of the school composition effect on an in-
dividual’s achievement but which does not seem to transfer easily to cases
where ESL is measured explicitly.
Conclusions
In the paper we have reviewed studies addressing the issue of ESL by utilis-
ing PISA data and results. Although the number of such studies we found
was not large, a pattern emerges in their findings. The most important find-
ing from our literature review is that students’ achievement shown in the
PISA test has a powerful impact on their propensity to leave school ear-
ly. This was clearly shown by the studies assessing ESL through follow-up
longitudinal surveys of the PISA student cohorts. This means that strong
competencies are important for students’ further (educational) life. The
strength of the achievement as a factor in risk of ESL remained significant
even after controlling for SES, for which associations with school achieve-
ment are well established. Further, among the factors analysed, the impact
showed to be the strongest, even stronger than the impact of SES. A sig-
nificant share of the effect of student achievement on leaving school can
therefore be separated from the effect of socio-economic background, in-
dicating that strong competencies can help in overcoming the effects of
disadvantages.
Studies have generally found common sets of student-level variables
associated with (the risk of) ESL that, in some studies, also proved to be sta-
ble in time. Such factors tend to be social factors such as gender, parental
education, SES, immigrant status, previous schooling and, as mentioned,
PISA scores. At the same time, scarce findings indicated any school-level
impact (e.g. average SES in the school); in Ireland, JCES (2010) found a fee
waiver to be significantly associated with the intention to leave school ear-
ly while Willms (2006) found that school-compositional effect has an influ-
ence on an individual student’s achievement. But when ESL was measured
explicitly, Marks (2007) did not find a school effect. This may seem contra-
dictory, but it shows that even though there are schools with substantially
higher or lower levels of school leaving than expected given their students’
197
contrast with the previously mentioned findings of Marks (2007) and oth-
ers that school-level measures showed no association with ESL. However,
this contrast may stem from the fact the first studies used an explicit meas-
ure of ESL while the above-mentioned studies employed an individual’s low
PISA achievement as a proxy for ESL. The second set of studies therefore
reveals the well-known finding of the school composition effect on an in-
dividual’s achievement but which does not seem to transfer easily to cases
where ESL is measured explicitly.
Conclusions
In the paper we have reviewed studies addressing the issue of ESL by utilis-
ing PISA data and results. Although the number of such studies we found
was not large, a pattern emerges in their findings. The most important find-
ing from our literature review is that students’ achievement shown in the
PISA test has a powerful impact on their propensity to leave school ear-
ly. This was clearly shown by the studies assessing ESL through follow-up
longitudinal surveys of the PISA student cohorts. This means that strong
competencies are important for students’ further (educational) life. The
strength of the achievement as a factor in risk of ESL remained significant
even after controlling for SES, for which associations with school achieve-
ment are well established. Further, among the factors analysed, the impact
showed to be the strongest, even stronger than the impact of SES. A sig-
nificant share of the effect of student achievement on leaving school can
therefore be separated from the effect of socio-economic background, in-
dicating that strong competencies can help in overcoming the effects of
disadvantages.
Studies have generally found common sets of student-level variables
associated with (the risk of) ESL that, in some studies, also proved to be sta-
ble in time. Such factors tend to be social factors such as gender, parental
education, SES, immigrant status, previous schooling and, as mentioned,
PISA scores. At the same time, scarce findings indicated any school-level
impact (e.g. average SES in the school); in Ireland, JCES (2010) found a fee
waiver to be significantly associated with the intention to leave school ear-
ly while Willms (2006) found that school-compositional effect has an influ-
ence on an individual student’s achievement. But when ESL was measured
explicitly, Marks (2007) did not find a school effect. This may seem contra-
dictory, but it shows that even though there are schools with substantially
higher or lower levels of school leaving than expected given their students’
197
