University of Oslo Workshops June 29-30 Conference July 1-3 ...

Track C PIRLS/TIMSS - Session 7
Equity and Socioeconomic Factors in Student Achievement
across Countries
3 July
10:00-12:00
Room: AK 2138
Chair: Gabrielle Stanco
Discussant: Dirk Hastedt
Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Reading Literacy Achievement:
A Multilevel Approach
Andrea Netten, National Center for Language Education, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
In this study an attempt was made to identify factors that explain the variation in reading
literacy achievement among fourth grade children in the Netherlands, with a focus on the
differences between first and second language learners. Measures at the level of the
students, the student’s class, and school were used. The data of 3549 first language
learners and 208 Turkish and Moroccan second language learners who participated in the
IEA Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006 were analyzed. Multilevel
analyses were conducted and showed the level of the student to account for most of the
explained variance; the level of the class also accounted for a significant part; school only
accounted for a very minor part of the variance. The results of multilevel modeling showed
34, 7% of the total variance in reading literacy to be explained by the entered antecedent
conditions and malleable variables. Ethnicity, education of the mother and father,
occupation of the mother, the amount of early literacy activities in the home, the parents
attitudes towards reading, reading attitude of the student, reading self-concept, the amount
of reading activities at school and the percentage second language students in a school
were proven to be significant predictors of reading literacy. There were no significant
interaction effects found between the subgroups of first and second language students.
Key words: second language learners; reading literacy; motivation; multilevel analyses
Achievement Equity by Urbanization in Latvia's Primary Education-Analysis
of PIRLS 2006 and TIMSS 2007 Data
Ieva Johansone, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston College, USA
A significant problem for the Latvian education system has long been inequity in the
quality of education offered to all students across the country. A significant part of the
achievement variance can be explained by performance differences between urban and
rural school communities. In addition to this being a persistent trend, the gap has kept
increasing over time (Geske, Grinfelds, Dedze, Zhang, 2006; Johansone, Preuschoff, 2008;
Johansone, 2009). This paper focuses on the equity of student achievement by urbanization
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