Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

001CHAPTER 32Education for All Global Monitoring ReportSocio-economicdisadvantageweighs moreheavily on testscores in somecountries thanotherslearning achievement. Analysis of national datafrom the 2006 PISA science tests given to 15-yearoldsshows that, on average, socio-economicbackground explains 14% of the variation inperformance. There is marked variation aroundthe average. Socio-economic characteristics weighfar more heavily in some countries, such asFrance, Germany, the United Kingdom and theUnited States, than in others, including Finland,Japan and the Republic of Korea, all of whichachieve higher average scores (OECD, 2007b).Figure 3.18 illustrates the weight of inheritedcircumstance in shaping learning achievement.It suggests that high levels of inequality areparticularly damaging for children fromhouseholds at the lower end of the socio-economicdistribution. Consider the following comparisons.The share of the national variation in PISAmathematics scores explained by socio-economicstatus is far greater in Germany than in Finland,with German children in the lowest socioeconomicgroup twice as likely to score at thelowest level in mathematics tests. The contrastFigure 3.18: Socio-economic disadvantage in education weighs more heavilyin some countries than othersOdds ratio for likelihood of lowest socio-economic status students aged 15 being among the bottomperformers and % of mathematics score variance explained by socio-economic status, OECD countriesSocio-economic disadvantage index654321Students with low socio-economic status aremore likely to be among the worse performersRep of KoreaFinlandJapanIcelandSwedenDenmarkSwitzerlandGreeceSlovakiaGermanyTurkeySocio-economic status explains a larger shareof the differences in mathematics scoresBelgiumUnited States00 5 10 15 20 25Variance in mathematics scores explained by socio-economic status (%)HungaryFranceNote: The socio-economic disadvantage index is the relative likelihood of students with the lowest socio-economicstatus (SES) scoring below or at proficiency level 1 when compared to student with the highest SES.Sources: OECD (2006a, 2007a).between (less equal) France and (more equal)the Republic of Korea is equally striking. Doesthe higher level of equity achieved in Finland andthe Republic of Korea come at the price of loweraverage performance? On the contrary, bothcountries have higher mean test scores in PISAthan France or Germany.Household poverty, a core element in socioeconomicdisadvantage, is strongly associated withlow levels of education achievement. In England,students receiving a free school meal – a sign ofhousehold deprivation – have far lower averagetest scores than other students. The score gap inEnglish is 16% and the gap in mathematics is 29%.The share of this group leaving school with highscores on national tests is one-third the nationalaverage (Vignoles, 2009; UK Department forChildren, Schools and Families, 2008).Wealth-based performance differences in Franceare equally marked. Almost half the children fromthe poorest households are significantly behindtheir peers by sixth grade. By age 15, around 15%of the poorest students are at least two yearsbehind the ninth grade performance level – threetimes the national average. By age 17, almostone in five poor youth have given up their studies(France Council for Employment, 2008).Poverty effects combine with other factors thatcontribute to marginalization. In the United States,schools with high concentrations of poverty (withover 75% of students eligible for free or subsidizedlunch) had the lowest percentage of whitestudents, the highest percentage of African-American and Hispanic students, and the highestpercentage of students who reported alwaysspeaking a language other than English at home.They also had the highest percentage of fourthgradersbeing taught by a teacher with fewerthan five years of experience (US Departmentof Education, 2007). Test score gaps reflect thecumulative disadvantage. On the internationalTIMSS scale for mathematics in grade 8, theUnited States ranks ninth out of forty-eightcountries. Hispanic students, however, score justabove the level of Malaysia. On an internationalscale, schools with high concentrations of povertyand African-American students score betweenthe average levels of Malaysia and Thailand(Figure 3.19). These very large test score effectspoint to limited success by the education systemin counteracting wide social disadvantages.156