We investigate the effect of changing schools on academic achievement. Using representative data on the educational trajectories of 17,000 Swiss lower secondary students and national assessment data at the end of compulsory schooling, we estimate the potential individual achievement gaps caused by a school change. While the overall effect is…

During the spring of 2019, approximately 1.6 million people in over 1700 cities worldwide participated in strike action to raise public awareness of government inaction on climate change. The large proportion of youth and young people mobilized through these climate strikes was unprecedented. However, we know very little so far about who these…

School stress is widespread among students' worldwide, impacting academic success and mental health. Most research focuses on average stress levels but lacks insights into temporal trends and inequalities. Using repeated longitudinal survey data on 33,000 students in Swedish compulsory school from the Evaluation Through Follow-up (ETF) study, we…

Background: Inconsistencies are found regarding the relationship between academic achievement and visual-motor integration (VMI), gender and socio-economic status (SES). Aim: The study examined the associations between academic achievement in different compulsory learning areas and VMI skills, and what role gender and SES play. Setting: A total of…

Research indicates that beliefs on the locus of the primary source of learning can have negative effects on learning behaviors in school (Mercer & Ryan, 2011). To an increasing extent, young people in Sweden acquire English outside school through different cultural practices (Sundqvist & Sylvén, 2012). At the same time, students lack…

National goals and performance standards were introduced in Sweden during the 1990s as part of a curriculum reform. The intention was to detect shortcomings among students and provide support to those students who did not reach the passing grade in one (or several) subject/s. Despite this reform, approximately one-fourth of the students do not…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how grading of students in primary school affected achievement measured by grades one year later, and how the effect varied as a function of cognitive ability, gender and socio-economic status. The data derive from The Evaluation Through Follow Up longitudinal project. Through a national curriculum…

Background: Many students leave compulsory school without being qualified to apply for national upper secondary school programmes. Despite efforts, the number of unqualified students in Sweden has increased. Grades from compulsory school have direct implications for students' educational futures and the requirement to qualify for an upper…

The study investigated the predictive value of robust and specific personality traits in adolescents (M[subscript age]?=?14.7 years), in explaining their academic achievement at the end of basic compulsory schooling. Personality data were obtained through self, maternal, and peer reports using the Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual…

Irrespective of the grading system, grades are the most valid instrument for predicting educational success. Previous studies have shown that criterion-referenced compulsory school grades are multidimensional, reflecting subject-specific dimensions and a common grade dimension, both of which contribute to the predictive validity of grades. This…

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after…

Background: Political devolution occurred in the UK in 1998-99, following many years in which some degree of policy administration had been devolved to the four nations. Since devolution, all four countries of the UK have pursued increasingly divergent education policies. This is true in England in particular, where diversity, choice and…

Mental health problems--and depression in particular--have been rising internationally. The link between poor mental health and poor educational outcomes is particularly interesting in the case of the UK which has a low international ranking both on measures of child wellbeing and the probability of early drop-out from the labour market and…

The aim of this paper is to analyze the selection process at work before and after compulsory schooling by assessing the determinants of school failures, dropouts, and upper secondary school decisions of young Italians. The data-set is built combining individual data by the Labor Force Survey and aggregate data on local labor markets and school…

General cognitive ability ("g") does not explain sex differences in academic test performance by the end of compulsory education. Instead, individual differences in specific reasoning abilities, after removing the effects of "g," may contribute to the observed gender gaps. Associations between general or specific cognitive…