PISA

Abstract Widening achievement gaps driven by socioeconomic disparity have become a global concern. Yet, few studies have been able to track the changes and developments of socioeconomic-achievement gaps (SES-achievement gaps henceforward) across time. Using PISA data from 2003 to 2018, we estimated family SES-achievement gaps in seven Asian education systems. The findings suggest that in mainland China the gaps are most pronounced, whereas in Macao, they remain consistently modest. Other systems fall in between these two extremes. Based on the new synchronic and diachronic pieces of evidence, we extrapolate possible explanations of varying SES-achievement gaps across education systems. We found that the gaps tend to be smaller when the low-socioeconomic students perform better in academic environments. Based on our analysis, we argue that if the policy goal is to reduce the learning gap associated with social and economic division, public attention in education should be directed towards students from disadvantaged backgrounds. ...

Abstract While the existence of a class, gender, or ethnic gap in educational attainment is well documented for many societies, how the practice of grade retention contributes to these patterns of educational inequality has been inadequately addressed. Given that grade retention is commonly practised in Macao, Macao is used as a case for illustration. Using data from PISA 2009 and a qualitative research project, we seek to demonstrate how inadequate state regulation could make possible the manipulation of grade retention institutionally and individually in Macao. This, in turn, illustrates how the specific contextualized structural operation of grade retention could serve as a mechanism for social differentiation and thus play a role in contributing to the observed educational inequality. ...