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Does class matter more than school? Evidence from a multilevel statistical analysis on Italian junior secondary school students

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  • Masci, Chiara
  • Ieva, Francesca
  • Agasisti, Tommaso
  • Paganoni, Anna Maria

Abstract

This paper assesses the differences in educational attainments between students across classes and schools they are grouped by, in the context of Italian educational system. The purpose is to identify a relationship between pupils' reading test scores and students' characteristics, stratifying for classes, schools and geographical areas. The dataset contains detailed information about more than 500,000 students at the first year of junior secondary school in the year 2012/2013. By means of multilevel linear models, it is possible to estimate statistically significant school and class effects, after adjusting for pupil's characteristics, including prior achievement. The results show that school and class effects are very heterogeneous across macro-areas (Northern, Central and Southern Italy), and that there are substantial discrepancies between and within schools; overall, class effects on achievement tend to be larger than school ones.

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  • Masci, Chiara & Ieva, Francesca & Agasisti, Tommaso & Paganoni, Anna Maria, 2016. "Does class matter more than school? Evidence from a multilevel statistical analysis on Italian junior secondary school students," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 47-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:47-57
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2016.03.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Tommaso Agasisti & Francesca Ieva & Anna Maria Paganoni, 2017. "Heterogeneity, school-effects and the North/South achievement gap in Italian secondary education: evidence from a three-level mixed model," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 26(1), pages 157-180, March.
    2. Marina Cavalieri & Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio, 2020. "Does the Fish Rot from the Head? Organised Crime and Educational Outcomes in Southern Italy," Working papers 97, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    3. Alex Bryson & Lorenzo Corsini & Irene Martelli, 2022. "Teacher allocation and school performance in Italy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 36(4), pages 409-423, December.
    4. Camanho, Ana S. & Varriale, Luisa & Barbosa, Flávia & Sobral, Thiago, 2021. "Performance assessment of upper secondary schools in Italian regions using a circular pseudo-Malmquist index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(3), pages 1188-1208.
    5. Cavalieri, Marina & Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo & Guccio, Calogero, 2023. "Organised crime and educational outcomes in Southern Italy: An empirical investigation," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Masci, Chiara & Johnes, Geraint & Agasisti, Tommaso, 2018. "Student and school performance across countries: A machine learning approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 1072-1085.
    7. Chiara Masci & Francesca Ieva & Tommaso Agasisti & Anna Maria Paganoni, 2021. "Evaluating class and school effects on the joint student achievements in different subjects: a bivariate semiparametric model with random coefficients," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 2337-2377, December.
    8. Masci, Chiara & De Witte, Kristof & Agasisti, Tommaso, 2018. "The influence of school size, principal characteristics and school management practices on educational performance: An efficiency analysis of Italian students attending middle schools," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 52-69.

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