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Families, schools and primary-school learning: evidence for Argentina and Colombia in an international perspective

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  • Ludger Wossmann

Abstract

This article presents evidence on the associations between family background, school characteristics and student performance in primary school in Argentina, Colombia and several comparison countries. As a general pattern, educational performance is strongly related to family background, weakly to some institutional school features and hardly to schools' resource endowments. In an international perspective, family-background effects are relatively large in Argentina, and relatively small in Colombia. A specific Argentine feature is the lack of performance differences between rural and urban areas. A specific Colombian feature is the lack of significant between-gender performance differences. Nonnative students and students not speaking Spanish at home perform particularly weak in both countries. In Argentina, students perform better in schools with a centralized curriculum and ability-based class formation.

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  • Ludger Wossmann, 2010. "Families, schools and primary-school learning: evidence for Argentina and Colombia in an international perspective," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(21), pages 2645-2665.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:42:y:2010:i:21:p:2645-2665
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840801964617
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    1. Tres puntos de partida para entender la calidad en la educación
      by Rosangela Bando in Hacia el desarrollo efectivo on 2012-06-27 16:58:28
    2. Development that Works: Three starting points to understand education quality
      by Rosangela Bando in Eval Central on 2012-06-27 16:58:50

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    4. Marchionni, Mariana & Pinto, Florencia & Vazquez, Emmanuel, 2013. "Determinantes de la desigualdad en el desempeño educativo en la Argentina [Determinants of the inequality in PISA test scores in Argentina]," MPRA Paper 56421, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    7. Ludger Wößmann, 2005. "Ursachenkomplexe der PISA-Ergebnisse: Untersuchungen auf Basis der internationalen Mikrodaten," ifo Working Paper Series 16, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

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