Abstract
Educational inequality is a persistent and common feature of all nations. Levels of educational attainment and academic success vary by family background, race and location in every system suggesting that there are commonalities of process that wealthy nations share. Yet, the extent of inequality and its impact can be stronger or weaker depending on the form and architecture of institutional and program arrangements. This point is made clear in the work of Douglas Willms who has reported in his comparative studies of educational performance that the relationship between home background and school outcomes can be more or less severe: while inequality is quite strong in some nations, others achieve both above-average levels of student achievement and weaker effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on educational success leading to greater equality of educational opportunity (Willms, 2004,2006; OECD,2001, Chap8). In some nations, the social gaps in student performance are weaker and the chances of success for the poor are stronger.
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A difference of 62 points represents one proficiency level on the PISA mathematics scales. According to OECD reports, this can be considered a comparatively large difference in student performance in substantive terms: each rise in level of proficiency represents a major increase in skill requirements for successful completion of tasks (OECD, 2004). For example, Level 1 (bottom proficiency level skills) requires rudimentary computational and reasoning skills, while Level 2 requires a capacity to recognise, apply and interpret basic formulas and make use of direct inferences. Students proficient at Level 6 can identify and combine multiple pieces of information to solve complex problems in the context of unfamiliar real-world situations. In order to reach a particular proficiency level, a student must have been able to correctly answer a majority of items at that level. Students at each succeeding level are capable of solving mathematical problems of increasing complexity. For a discussion on proficiency skill levels, see OECD (2004, 2005a).
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Lamb, S. (2011). School Dropout and Inequality. In: Lamb, S., Markussen, E., Teese, R., Polesel, J., Sandberg, N. (eds) School Dropout and Completion. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9763-7_21
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