This study aims to explore the effect of cultural capital on the perception of parental involvement policies offered by schools in various countries. Using PISA (2018) data, a multilevel model is implemented for each participant country to adopt a comparative perspective. While the results suggest a complex effect, moderated by idiosyncratic…

Has the achievement of U.S. students improved over the past half century? Have gaps between racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups widened or narrowed? These and similar questions provoke near-constant conversation. But answers are uncertain, partly because research to date has yielded inconsistent findings. In this article, the authors bring…

The most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey enables educators, policy makers and the wider community to compare Australian students with each other, as well as with their counterparts across the world. PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the…

It is with increasing importance that mathematics education research considers the role of noncognitive motivation variables alongside elements of the classroom context in investigations of student mathematics performance. This study uses a hierarchical linear modeling framework to predict mathematics achievement from three classroom variables,…

Demand for jobs in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and in the health care field is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019). However, the current STEM and health care workforces are characterized by demographic disparities and a lack of…

This study examined how motivational factors (i.e., self-concept in science, enjoyment of science, and instrumental value of science) predict science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career aspirations using a nationally representative sample of 5,611 fifteen-year-old students (49.4% female) in the United States. The findings demonstrated…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

Rising inequality in the United States has raised concerns about potentially widening gaps in educational achievement by socio-economic status (SES). Using assessments from LTT-NAEP [Long-Term Trend assessment administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress], Main-NAEP, TIMSS [Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study],…

Israeli students ranked in the bottom third of the countries surveyed by PISA 2012 in mathematical literacy, while the gap between the highest and lowest scores was the second largest in the OECD. This paper explores which variables led to disparities in mathematical literacy between different socioeconomic levels and between Israeli Arabs and…

Concerns about the breadth of the U.S. income distribution and limited intergenerational mobility have led to a focus on educational achievement gaps by socio-economic status (SES). Using intertemporally linked assessments from NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress], TIMSS [Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey], and…

The literature is replete with studies about the importance of context in relation to teaching and learning. Major international studies such as PISA, among others, attempt to develop an understanding of achievement in science learning in a variety of educational contexts. Here we explore the influence of educational context itself on science…

Congress has required that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report to policymakers about the progress of education in the United States. "The Condition of Education 2016" presents 43 key indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on population characteristics,…