Educational Attainment and Social Inequality in Russia: Dynamics and Correlations with Education Policies (original) (raw)
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Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2013
In this paper, we develop a multi-level comparative approach to analyse Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Programme of International Student Achievement (PISA) mathematics results for a country, Russia, where the two tests provide contradictory information about students' relative performance. Russian students do relatively well on the TIMSS mathematics test but relatively poorly on the PISA. We compare the performance of Russian students with different levels of family academic resources over the past decade on these tests compared to students with similar family resources in Russia's neighbours and to Russian students studying in Latvian and Estonian Russian-medium schools. These comparisons and interviews with educators in Latvia and Estonia help us understand why students in Russia may perform lower on the PISA and to draw education policy lessons for improving international test performance generally and Russian students' PISA mathematics performance specifically.
The urban–rural divide in educational outcomes: Evidence from Russia
International Journal of Educational Development, 2015
Higher levels of human capital, as measured by the quantity and quality of education, tend to contribute to a more rapid economic growth and help the poorer economies to 'catch-up' with the richer ones (e.g. Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 2004). As such, human capital plays a key role in the economic development of low and middle-income countries. The relationship between growth and schooling is inherently dependent on the returns to education, which are often heterogeneous across different population groups (e.g. Schultz, 1975; Nelson and Phelps, 1966). Urban areas are likely to differ from rural ones in both the costs and benefits of schooling. This is because individuals from rural settlements tend to face a large number of geographic and institutional disadvantages, which are likely to affect their incentives to invest in human capital. For instance, in rural areas the effectiveness of job services and social service provision are often inefficient due to low population density and geographical remoteness. Urban residents are typically better positioned to access employment opportunities and social services and tend to have a greater geographic and occupational mobility (Donahue, 2002). These factors may explain why urban areas are often found to have higher return to education compared to rural ones (Kochar, 2004; Brasington, 2002). Differences in returns to education across settlements are also reflected in large disparities in educational outcome. Moreover, the urban-rural divide in education tends to be more pronounced in developing and emerging economies where it is closely related to a general gap between socioeconomic development of rural and urban areas (e.g. Glewwe and Kremer, 2006). In fact, the recent findings indicate that locational disparities in both the quantity and quality of the education provided have increased (Stewart, 2000; UNICEF, 2007). Russia makes an interesting case to compare the student performance in rural and urban areas, particularly in the dynamic setting, for several reasons. First, the market reforms in the country led to growing inequalities and regional disparities but the systematic empirical analysis of educational aspects of these changes is lacking in the literature. 1 Second, in spite of a significant
Educational Inequality in Russia
R. Teese, S. Lamb and M. Duru-Bellat (eds.), International Studies in Educational Inequality, Theory and Policy Volume 2: Inequality in Education Systems, 143–156., 2007
Soviet policy towards total literacy and equality of access to education for all was quite successful. A great number of people from previously underrepresented groups (such as workers and the rural population) gained opportunities to acquire an education and raise themselves in the social hierarchy using education as a social elevator.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
In this paper, we develop a multi-level comparative approach to analyse Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Programme of International Student Achievement (PISA) mathematics results for a country, Russia, where the two tests provide contradictory information about students' relative performance. Russian students do relatively well on the TIMSS mathematics test but relatively poorly on the PISA. We compare the performance of Russian students with different levels of family academic resources over the past decade on these tests compared to students with similar family resources in Russia's neighbours and to Russian students studying in Latvian and Estonian Russian-medium schools. These comparisons and interviews with educators in Latvia and Estonia help us understand why students in Russia may perform lower on the PISA and to draw education policy lessons for improving international test performance generally and Russian students' PISA mathematics performance specifically.
Why public education is unequal: case of Ukrainian rural schools
Knowledge and Performance Management, 2017
Ukrainian educational system is not able to provide equal access to the university, regardless of children's socioeconomic background. Despite of the anti-discrimination ideas in legislation and in public discourse (with implementation of transparent mechanism of selection in 2004-External Independent Testing), there are statistically significant differences in the results of EIT (that defines chances to get higher education) between children from rural area and their peers from urban schools (especially from elite ones). The research is based on Bourdieu's theoretical concept of capitals and seven in-depth interviews with teachers from rural schools in different regions of Ukraine. Based on the findings, the author divides mechanisms of reproduction of educational inequality into four dimensions: economic capital of the school, the economic capital of the family, cultural capital of the school and cultural capital of the family. Current educational reforms of secondary and higher education in Ukraine will not improve the situation with access to higher education for children from poor social backgrounds. Closing of unprofitable universities and schools in a rural area, expending the years of studying at school and implementation on funding reallocation based on a competition with financial support only of those, who are more successful, will deepen educational inequality, making accesses to the mechanism of improving socioeconomic position even more dependent from the socioeconomic background.
Education System In Russia: Sociocultural Reforms
The stock theme of this work is the development of conceptualization of a mission and nature of education as a leading social activity participating in generation of such systematic social and mental effects of the public life as formation of civil, ethno-cultural, and panhuman identity; the dynamics of social differentiation and stratification of the society; adoption of various traditions, values, norms, and behavioral components of attitude for large and minor social groups; acquisition of a repertoire of personal, social, and professional competencies supporting individualization, socialization, and professionalization of a person within the system of individuals and professions; and development of human potential as the most important condition of national competitive performance.
Proceedings of the All-Russian Conference with International Participation "Education, Social Mobility, and Human Development: to the 90th Anniversary of Prof. L.G. Borisova"
The article is devoted to the analysis of the problems of inequality in modern education from the point of view of the world-system approach. The authors establish links between educational inequality and inequality of societies in the «core – semiperiphery – periphery» structure. The authors attempt to consider the mechanism of the formation of educational inequality in peripheral societies in which social contradictions are most clearly observed from the perspective of the world-system approach. The authors use the theoretical constructions of the world-system approach of I. Wallerstein, S. Amin, F. Cardozo, the ideas of the representatives of the world-system paradigm in comparative education of R.F. Arnove, T. Griffiths, and the concept of a closed circle of inequality in education by R. Flecha. The authors believe that changes in the education system of a society that is integrated into the world-system through the specialization of its economy correspond to those specific transformations that are caused in this society by the innovation spread by the global hegemon. The authors of the article show that the reform of the education system proceeds in the general direction of integrating society into the world system of the division of labor, when the elite forms priority consumption patterns in a society (including patterns of knowledge and education), borrowing they from the countries of the core and the hegemon of the world system. The formation of priority patterns leads to the displacement of their own educational culture, the imitation of the masses of the elite and the uneven spread of the patterns. Since full compliance with the priority patterns is unattainable for the majority of the population, its imitations are spreading.
Do human and cultural capital lenses contribute to our understanding of academic success in Russia
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2019
Using newly available data from the Trajectories in Education and Careers Study, the first longitudinal study on a representative sample of high school students in Russia, we examined the importance of investments in human and cultural capital on students’ mathematics and reading standardized examinations, as well as on the likelihood of matriculation into a selective institution of higher education. Studying mathematics and the Russian language on one’s own for more than a year was positively and significantly associated with standardized scores and with an increased likelihood of matriculating into a selective university. A higher number of books at home was also associated with an increased likelihood of matriculating into a selective university. The findings are discussed within the particular institutional context of the Russian educational system.
Social Forces, 2019
S ociologists have argued that high-stakes tests open the door to high levels of educational inequality at transition points: in a high-stakes testing regime, parents and students are able to focus all energy and resources on test preparation, thus enhancing pre-existing inequalities in academic performance. But arguments about a special role for high-stakes tests are often prosecuted without explicit comparisons to other types of tests and assessments, usually because information on other tests is not available. In this article, we analyze a unique dataset on a contemporary cohort of Russian students, for whom we have PISA and TIMSS scores, low-stakes test scores, and high-stakes test scores. We compare the role each test plays in mediating socioeconomic background inequalities at the important transitions in the Russian educational system: the transition to upper secondary education and the transition to university. We find evidence in favor of a special role for the high-stakes test at the transition to university, but we also find evidence that gives cause to question the standard assumption that high-stakes tests should be a primary focus for those concerned about inequality of educational opportunity.