Much of the existing educational research has focused on affluent Western societies. Despite comprising a broad swathe of the world population, less work has focused on lower middle-income economies such as the Philippines. Perhaps part of this reason is the lack of high-quality data in such contexts. PISA provides a potential solution to this…

Large-scale international studies offer researchers a rich source of data to examine the relationship among variables. Machine learning embodies a range of flexible statistical procedures to identify key indicators of a response variable among a collection of hundreds or even thousands of potential predictor variables. Among these, penalized…

The main drive for this study is to look into potential predictors of educational achievement using OECD's original Pisa 2018 dataset. This paper explores (i) access to ICT, (ii) physical characteristics of learning environment at school, (iii) quality of teaching staff and educational material, (iv) student characteristics and learning climate,…

Stage-environment fit theory posits that the interpersonal dynamics and structural (i.e. school-level) resources afforded by a student's academic environment can either support or thwart student thriving (e.g. achievement). Thus, it is important to examine how these factors impact student achievement at the student- and school-level. This…

This study aims to investigate the predictors of reading performance and how reading performance predicts mathematics and science performances in PISA 2018 study. For this purpose, the country in the focus (Turkey), the highest performer (China [B-S-J-Z]) in the world, and the lowest performer (Mexico) among the OECD members countries were…

This paper investigates the relationship between student engagement--with teachers and schools--and academic performance in Mexico. It uses hierarchical linear models and data from the OECD 2003 PISA study to examine the relative importance of engagement in comparison to other educational inputs--school and family characteristics--as predictors of…

Problem Statement: Socio-economic background plays an important role in academic achievement, but there is a group of students beating the odds and becoming successful despite the socio-economic background of their families. Purpose of the Study: The study aimed to define how resilient students succeed at school despite their socio-economically…