Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Italy (original) (raw)
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Chapter 5 : Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Italy
This chapter assesses inequalities in educational outcomes in Italy linking their evolution to changes in the Italian educational system. We analyse how track choice and performance in PISA tests among 15-year olds are influenced by social origins. We consider how inequalities by social origins are intertwined with inequalities by immigrant status and area of residence. We detect a small reduction of inequalities in participation in the academic track and a reduction of inequality in achievement limited to the northern regions, but overall our results show a high inertia in the reproduction of social inequalities. These results are observed during a period where the reduction of inequalities in education has remained a marginal issue in the policy debate as well as a marginal target of educational policies.
2019
In this paper, we comment findings from multiple estimations and correlations statistically obtained in order to assess the effects of ascriptive variables on educational inequalities among Italian students’ achievements measured via OECD PISA scores in school skills and educational expectations. Additionally, we split the effects deriving from ascriptive variables and those from students’ track choices among the three upper secondary options available: liceo (lyceum), istituto tecnico (technical track) and istituto professionale (professional track). We aim at finding out social and educational mechanisms generating differentials in skills outcomes and at intercepting and evaluating the influence of ascriptive variables on track choices.
The main aim of this work is to examine the long-term trends in the association between social class of origin, enrolment in upper secondary education and the choice of high school track. In the first part, we describe the Italian education system and the main educational reforms which occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. We also discuss several theories which can help to make predictions on the expected trends in vertical and horizontal inequalities in secondary education. We used binomial and multinomial logistic regression models on data from the Italian Households Longitudinal Survey to test our hypotheses. In line with the maximally maintained inequality argument, we found that absolute inequalities in the probability of enrolling in upper secondary education declined but relative inequality persisted. As predicted by the ‘effectively maintained inequality’ thesis, the association between social class of origin a relative terms). This is because children from the upper classes became increasingly likely to attend the academic track, while those from the working class were more likely to attend the technical and vocational schools. The educational reforms played a negligible role in reducing social inequalities in school prosecution after lower secondary education, while they had a side effect of boosting horizontal inequality in track choice.
Disse Working Paper Series, 2020
The main aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of social and territorial inequalities on educational outcomes in the Italian upper secondary school. For this purpose, the paper means to respond to 4 general questions: first, to what extent family background affects upper secondary school-choice and whether it has been changing during the last decade. Second, how strong is the school-track effect on learning outcomes net of other main independent variables. Third, to what extent the average family background at school level has an added role in the general explanatory model of inequalities in learning outcomes. Finally, throughout OLS models based on macro-area as a split dependent variable, we aim at accounting for structural explanatory differences between Northern and Southern regions. Findings shows a clear explanatory pattern: rather than the individual factors, it’s a chains of family background, school-choice as well as average school social status to play a determinant role in explaining learning outcomes. This explanatory pattern keeps being valid when splitting up for Italian macro areas (North-West, North-East, Centre, South and South-Islands). Two important exceptions stand out: 1) the effect of school-choice is stronger in South and South-Islands and 2) the effect of the average social status of schools is stronger in Centre and North-East.
ITALY Social and Migration-related Inequality in Achievement in Primary and Secondary Education
2019
This chapter will analyse the evolution of achievement gaps in Italy, as students move from primary to secondary schooling. Our chapter will thereby primarily address research question one, particularly the aspect of how social and migration-related gaps in educational achievement develop over time. Tackling these questions, we make use of population-level data from Italy capturing achievement of all students in Italian primary and secondary schools in a specific year by INVALSI-the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of the School System. Combining such population-level data with a pseudo-panel design capturing end of primary schooling, lower and upper secondary schooling, our study can reveal with high precision how social and migration-related inequality in achievement evolves in the school career of students. Our study, however, was limited as to the second research question, since at the time of writing this chapter, population data could not be linked across years on the individual level. Our chapter is structured as follows. First, by providing an overview of the education system in Italy, we locate our case in the overall framework of the report. Second, we describe the population data and discuss our analytical approach implementing a pseudo-panel design. Moreover, we discuss the construction of our central dependent and independent variables. Afterwards, we present our findings on social and migration-related achievement gaps. Our analysis will also inspect the intersection of gender and migration status in patterns of inequality of educational achievement. Finally, we draw a conclusion. 6.2 The education system in Italy In Italy, children can go to pre-primary school ("Kindergarten") which lasts for three years between the age of 3 and the age of 5. Although attendance is optional, a vast majority of children participate in it. For instance, in 2016 around 95% of Italian children (aged between 3 and 5) attended pre-primary school compared to an average attendance rate of 88% at EU-22 level (OECD 2018, Education at a Glance Figure B2.1a and 1b). Children enter school by September in the year a child turns to six. The first cycle, primary schooling, consists of 5 school years across
Inequality of opportunity in secondary school enrolment in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands
Quality & Quantity, 2011
Aim of this work is to evaluate the overall effect of social origins on secondary school track enrolment in Italy, Germany and Netherlands, allowing for consistent cross country comparisons. PISA 2003 is employed. Track choices are assumed to depend on student's ability and social origins; since proficiency before tracking is not observed, ability is not kept under control. Nonetheless, the unconditional social background effect is the quantity of main substantive interest because it represents the total effect of social origins on school choices.
Educational Inequalities In Italian Common School: Empirical Evidences And Implications For Policies
Educational Inequalities In Italian Common School: Empirical Evidences And Implications For Policies The common or comprehensive school model appeared in educational policies and debates in Italy between the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 6os, when attempts were made to put into ordinary laws the norms set out in the republican constitution (1948). According to these norms, the duration of compulsory schooling was to cover a period of “not less than eight years”. The debate led to the reform of 1962, which not only prolonged compulsory schooling but also introduced a “scuola media” (middle school) for all, with a three-year course after the end of “scuola elementare” (primary) instead of the three pre-existing streams: “scuola media”, “scuola di avviamento professionale” (starting vocational school) and post-elementary classes. Italian reformers of the period drew inspiration from the Swedish experience and socio-pedagogical literature - for example, the works of T. Husen - founded on principles of social equality of opportunity. These ideas had developed among political left-wingers (socialists and communists) and labor unions in Italy from the period in which the Resistance movement opposed the Fascist regime and as they continued to flourish following the birth of the Republic, they were gradually embraced also by Catholics and Catholic schoolteachers’ organizations. The aims of the reform were threefold: inclusion through expansion; equality of opportunity; the cultural unification of the country. Our paper proposes to assess the results of the reform fifty years on, analyzing whether and to what extent its aims have been achieved and with which side-effects (for example, impact on learning), also by adopting a comparative perspective. This analysis comes at a time in which the debate surrounding educational policy in Italy has seen the emergence of heavy criticism directed at the “scuola media”, which is considered to be the “weak link” in our national system. It is held to be responsible for the marked decrease both in efficacy and equity, which has been registered between the final years of primary school and the first years of upper secondary school by the IEA and OECD learning tests. According to those critics, this drop in the quality of learning is the result of an unrealistic and utopian quest for equality in the “scuola media”, and therefore questions not only the ways in which the reform was carried out, but the philosophy of the common school itself. Today, the justification of a “scuola media” remodelling through “counter-reforming” policies inspired by a meritocratic and elitist ideology is also attempted by adopting this interpretative hypothesis. The principal aim of the analysis we present here is to verify such a hypothesis. Our investigation forms part of quantitative sociological studies on educational inequalities, and will refer to the twofold concept of equality proposed by F. Dubet: égalité des chances and égalité des places or résultats. It will be based on the theoretical hypothesis proposed by supporters of comprehensive education and confirmed by the results of many empirical research, that the longer duration of the common school mitigates the influence of social origin on students’ scholastic choices. Method The analysis will operate on two distinct grounds: careers and learning outcomes. We shall try to highlight the relationships between the two grounds in order to verify the hypothesis that there is a spiral of inequalities proceeding from one to the other and generating a systematic bias. Furthermore, on one hand we shall attempt to understand in what measure the inequalities at the end of “scuola media” have their origins either within that school itself or previously, that is within “scuola elementare”. And, on the other, in what measure the inequalities found after the first two years of upper secondary school are either an inheritance from the previous scholastic pathway or can be attributed to the impact of students’ socio-cultural background on their channel choice and experience within it. The analysis will be based on the joint use of TIMMS 2007 and PISA 2009 data, adopting a pseudo-panel technique. It will allow us to estimate the effects of individual variables (socio-cultural background, gender, scholastic career) on learning outcomes in the 3rd year of “scuola media” (8th grade) and at age 15 in a first phase, and the cumulative effect of inequalities throughout students’ school career in a second. Expected Outcomes In light of the outcome of our analysis, we shall resume the discussion centred on the experience of common school in Italy, with all its strengths and weaknesses, also in relation to the current debate on the reform of upper secondary school. From this point of view, of great interest is the transition from low to upper secondary school, a crucial point for educational inequalities, given that at age 15 students’ performances vary very strongly between channels and the choices of channel are strongly influenced by students’ social origins. We shall, in fact, be able to distinguish the effect of social origin on the choice passing through learned competencies and that passing through students’ expectations, knowing that they can suggest different equity policies. The results of the analysis will provide elements useful in assessing the consequences of applying the common school model in Italy, as well as in reconsidering the relationships to be established by the “scuola media” with both the previous and the subsequent scholastic level. In fact, an important weakness of the Italian “scuola media” seems to be the lack of integration of the entire compulsory school within a logic of commonality aimed at both equity and quality.
Regional Economic Disparities as Determinants of Students ’ Achievement in Italy
2016
We use a statistical (multilevel) approach to study the relationship between Math Scores and individual-level and school-level factors. The sample contains data about 21,336 students sorted into 163 schools. Our results show that students attending schools in Northern Italy outperform their counterparts in the South. Moreover, the between-schools variance is much higher in Southern Italy than in Northern Italy, albeit it is not due to student sorting based on different socio-economic status (SES), as suggested by the traditional literature in this field. Finally, between-schools variance actually masks achievement differentials due to the different economic development of the Regions.
Persistent Inequalities? Expansion of Education and Class Inequality in Italy and Spain
European Sociological Review, 2009
The paper analyses inequalities in educational outcomes (IEO) by class of family of origin in Italy and Spain for five 10-year cohorts born from 1920 to 1969, using the cumulative logit (ordinal regression) model. In both countries the question is whether, as education expanded, the class IEO's remained stable or diminished. The dominant view in the 1990s was that, with the exception of a few countries, inequalities persisted. In the current decade the consensus on this is changing, and decreasing class IEO is now more often found. Italy has been given as an example of educational expansion while maintaining class IEO. Spain was not included in previous analyses. The results show clearly that class IEO diminished in Spain as well as in Italy; differences in the timing of expansion and change in IEO can be accounted for through the different institutional settings of the two countries. A more contained reduction of IEO is found in Spain than in Italy.