Projects 2017

World Bank project "Analysis of inequality issues in Russian education based on PISA materials"

Head: A.B. Zakharov

The purpose of this study is to trace the dynamics of educational achievements in groups of Russian students, identified on the basis of the gender of students, the cultural capital of their families and types of settlements, and to identify the relationship between the revealed trends and changes in educational policy. A mixed-methods design strategy was used. The analysis of PISA data is accompanied by a series of interviews with experts who were asked to explain the possible reasons for the dynamics of students' educational results.

Center of Fundamental Studies project "Factors of the quality of school education and the choice of educational trajectories by students in the context of social inequality"

Heads: M. KarnoyI. D. Frumin


Goals: to describe the dynamics of social and territorial inequality in the PIRLS, TIMSS, and PISA studies; to analyze the teaching attitudes, characteristics, and practices of implementing a differentiated approach in teaching maths in the context of inequality in access to educational resources; to analyze institutional and individual factors and their relationship with the academic performance of students at different levels of education and with the choice of educational trajectories by students.
1. DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL AND TERRITORIAL INEQUALITIES IN THE PIRLS, TIMSS, AND PISA RESEARCH

A descriptive analysis of the dynamics of the results of students from different social groups in the PIRLS, TIMSS, and PISA monitoring for the period 2000s was carried out. The student segregation score is based on Duncan's D score calculations. Russia's results were compared with other countries. Over the past 15 years, there has been a slight increase in the results of Russian students and a decrease in social and territorial inequality. However, these changes do not characterize all subject areas and occur due to the improved results in groups with the low cultural capital of families and in small settlements. The scores of students from families with higher cultural capital and those living in large cities are not increasing. It is also shown that from 2003 to 2012 schools in Russia became more segregated. The upward trend in segregation is confirmed by comparison with other countries.

2. TEACHING INSTRUCTIONS, CHARACTERISTICS AND PRACTICES OF IMPLEMENTATION OF A DIFFERENTIATED APPROACH IN TEACHING MATHS IN THE CONTEXT OF INEQUALITY OF ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

To solve the research problem, an analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with mathematics teachers of secondary schools from nine regions of Russia was carried out. The analysis was based on the grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1968). The study also includes an ethnographic analysis of video recordings of mathematics lessons for the effectiveness of communication in the lesson. An in-depth interpretation of the schemes of role interaction between the teacher and students was carried out, the involvement of students in learning and the “working” climate in the classroom was studied. Finally, using ordinal logistic regression on the data of the longitude "Trajectories in education and profession" (http://trec.hse.ru/), a comparative analysis of the characteristics of mathematics teachers in grade 11, their attitudes and teaching practices was carried out.
It was possible to find out, firstly, how teachers compare students, what categories they differentiate into and how they work with different groups of children. Two models of teachers' perceptions were described: exclusive and inclusive, based on different ways of categorizing students depending on their abilities and level of motivation. Second, videos of math lessons showed how engaging and empowering practices become a constraint in math learning. A quantitative analysis of a survey of teachers showed that the practice of a differentiating approach is not related to the professional characteristics of teachers, such as a tendency to routine, length of service, qualification category, specialty, duration of teaching in the classroom. Thirdly, two fundamentally different perceptions of teachers of their role in expanding or restricting students 'access to educational resources were identified and described, depending on the extent to which teachers consider themselves responsible for students' academic failure.
3. INSTITUTIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ACADEMIC RESULTS OF STUDENTS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION AND WITH THE STUDENTS 'CHOICE OF EDUCATIONAL TRAJECTORIES

The data of the international research PIRLS, the data of the longitudinal project "Trajectories in education and profession", as well as information from open state sources of Rosstat and EMISS, EISOD of the Ministry of Education of Russia, and the portal "Statistics of Russian Education" were used. The relationship between the practices of teaching reading and reading literacy of preschool and primary school children was assessed using linear (OLS), logistic and ordinal logistic regression. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and modern testing theory (IRT) were used to analyze the factors of the school climate in high school. The study of the educational trajectories of children, as well as the factors of achievement of students from families with a high socio-economic status (SES) was carried out using the decomposition of regression coefficients into direct and indirect effects. Descriptive data analysis was used to compare the dynamics of the trajectories of students after grade 9 in Russian regions.
Some mechanisms of manifestation of social inequality at different levels of the Russian school were described. In the primary grades, the inequality of educational outcomes in reading was associated with parental practices of teaching children before school. Learning strategies differ in families with different levels of cultural capital. These strategies are effective to varying degrees. Children from families with low cultural capital who did not attend kindergarten are in a less favorable situation. Inequality of educational outcomes, which manifests itself in the first grade, is consolidated at the end of primary education.
Analysis in primary school and high school revealed a group of low-performing students from families with a high socioeconomic status (SES). The factors of failure here are similar to those for any low performing groups - low expectations on the part of teachers, the location of the school in a rural area, and the unfavorable social context of the school. On the other hand, in high school, the relationship between the components of the school climate and the educational achievements of schoolchildren is weak. Academic expectations of teachers showed a positive association with results only for students with high SES. A significant negative relationship with the results was shown by the students' sense of alienation.
By the end of basic and secondary school, inequality manifests itself in the choice of further educational trajectory. The effect of the socio-economic situation of the family is manifested to a greater extent at the end of the 9th grade when students from families with a high level of SES choose an academic trajectory, and most of the students from families with a low level of SES go to vocational education. Students in grades 10-11 are likely to go to college. At the same time, selective universities are chosen by students with high SES much more often than students with lower SES levels, even with the same academic performance, which confirms the theory of effectively maintained inequality at the level of higher education.
The observed manifestations of educational inequality have a pronounced regional specificity, weakening or strengthening the actions of the above mechanisms. Thus, large university centers are characterized by a high proportion of students who chose an academic track after grade 9, while vocational education programs are gaining popularity in other regions.