The publication of the OECD report on the PISA 2000 study induced a public outcry in Germany. On average, German students participating in this standardized test performed considerably below the OECD average and substantially worse than those of other European countries, like Finland or Ireland. However, the results presented by the report consist mainly of country averages which do not take into account any other covariates of individual student achievement. This paper provides a comprehensive econometric analysis of the association of the individual-level reading test scores of German students with individual and family background information and with characteristics of the school and class of the 15 to 16 year old respondents in Germany to the survey. The results of several quantile regression analyses demonstrate that many popular explanations, like too much regulation of schools or the substantial share of non-citizens among the participating students, are by no means supported by the data. Rather results point towards a considerable impact of schools aiming at a more homogenous body of students in terms of their educational achievement.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung in its series RWI Discussion Papers with number
0004.
Find related papers by JEL classification: I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: