Education Systems' Effects on Math and Science Achievement

本项目考察了国际上为提高学生成绩所做的努力，以及为来自不同社会经济背景的学生提供平等机会的尝试。国际教育研究，如国际数学和科学趋势研究（TIMSS）和国际学生评估计划（PISA），为学者们提供了一个独特的机会，可以随着时间的推移，研究教育系统的不同方面，并研究它们是否以及如何影响各国的平均学业成绩。在拟议的研究中，我们将使用大约40个参与国的TIMSS数据的所有五波可用数据来检查国家教育系统的制度特征（如差异化程度、标准化程度和私有化程度）与国家平均数学和科学成就分数的关系程度，以及这些时变制度特征是否缓和了数学和科学成就的社会经济差距。具体来说，我们将利用TIMSS的五次可用数据（1995年、1999年、2003年、2007年和2011年）中来自大约40个参与国的八年级数据，来研究各国教育系统的不同特征如何与国家的平均数学和科学成绩以及这一成就中的社会经济不平等联系起来。我们的研究对该领域做出了几项重要贡献。首先，我们将通过汇编来自不同来源的信息创建一个新的知识库，然后对各国教育系统的国家级、时变制度特征进行编码，并将研究这些特征如何随时间变化。其次，我们将研究社会经济地位（SES）与学业成就之间的关系是否以及如何受到教育系统的国家层面特征的调节。第三，我们将捕捉这些国家在16年间教育系统的变化，并研究这些变化是否以及如何影响家庭经济地位与数学和科学成绩之间的关系。我们的研究设计允许对一段时间内的学术成就进行有意义的国内和国家之间的比较。通过使用国家内部固定效应模型，我们将更好地控制国家的外生文化和社会特征，从而更准确地估计教育制度特征对学业成绩的影响。未来的研究将受益于我们将创建的关于被研究国家教育系统时变特征的数据。研究结果将有助于制定旨在减少所研究国家中家庭经济地位在教育成果方面的不平等的政策。研究结果也将有助于我们理解教育分层和教育机构在其中所扮演的角色。

This project examines international efforts to improve student performance and attempts to provide equal opportunities to students from different socio-economic backgrounds. International educational studies such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) provide a unique opportunity for scholars to look at the different aspects of educational systems over time and to examine whether and how they affect countries' mean academic achievement. In the proposed study we will employ all five available waves of TIMSS data for about forty participating countries to examine the extent to which institutional characteristics of countries' educational systems - such as a degree of differentiation, standardization, and privatization - are related to countries' mean math and science achievement scores, and whether these time-variant institutional characteristics moderate the socioeconomic gaps in math and science achievement.Specifically, we will utilize the 8th grade data from the five available waves of the TIMSS - 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011 - from about forty participating countries to examine how different characteristics of countries' educational systems are related to countries' mean math and science achievement, as well as to socio-economic inequality in this achievement. Our study makes several important contributions to the field. First, we will create a new knowledge base by compiling information from different sources and then coding country-level, time variant institutional characteristics of the countries' educational systems and will examine how these characteristics changed over time. Second, we will examine whether and how the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement is moderated by the country level characteristics of the educational systems. Third, we will capture changes in the countries' educational systems over a span of sixteen years, as well as examine whether and how these changes affected the relationships between family SES and math and science achievement. Our research design allows for a meaningful within- and between-country comparison of academic achievement over time. By employing within country fixed effects models, we will better control for countries' exogenous cultural and social characteristics, thus estimating more accurately the effects of institutional characteristics of educational systems on academic achievement. Future research will benefit from using the data we will create on time-variant characteristics of the educational systems in the studied countries. The findings will aid in the design of policies that aim to reduce inequality in educational outcomes by family SES in the studied countries. The findings will also significantly contribute to our understanding of educational stratification and the role educational institutions play in it.