Socioeconomic status, self-efficacy, and mathematics achievement in Australia: a secondary analysis

Previous studies have shown that both student and school socioeconomic status (SES) are strongly associated with student outcomes, but less is known about how these relationships may vary for different students, schools and nations. In this study we use a large international dataset to examine how student SES, school SES and self-efficacy are associated with mathematics performance among 15-year-old students in Australia. We found that increases in school SES are consistently associated with substantial increases in achievement in mathematics and this phenomenon holds for all groups, regardless of their individual SES. Furthermore, our findings show that the association of school SES with maths achievement persists even when subject-specific self-efficacy is taken into account. However, our findings also suggest modest differences among student groups disaggregated by these factors. In particular, the association between maths achievement and school SES appears moderately stronger for students with higher levels of self-efficacy compared with their peers with lower self-efficacy. Furthermore, among students with similar levels of self-efficacy, the association between maths achievement and school SES tends to be stronger for lower SES students than for their more privileged peers. From these findings, we highlight the importance of the Australian case for comparable systems of education, and provide a discussion of policy implications and strategies for mitigating the influence of school socioeconomic composition on academic achievement more generally.     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.     

CHANGING SOURCES AND PATTERNS OF FINANCE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION: A REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL TRENDS

The last decade has seen considerable changes in patterns of financing higher education in both industrialized and developing countries. Financial stringency affecting public budgets, rapid growth in student numbers, and concern for both efficiency and equity have resulted in changes both in systems of financial support for students and mechanisms for funding higher education institutions. This article reviews recent changes in sources and methods of financing higher education in OECD countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It examines attempts to shift some of the financial burdens, for higher education from public to private sources, through the introduction of tuition fees and student loans, not only in industrialized countries, but also in developing ones in Africa and Asia.     

高等教育与义务教育:政府在教育发展中的越权与卸责

随着高校招生规模的不断扩大,我国高等教育出现了国家与学生双重贫困的奇怪局面:一方面,国家虽不断增加资金投入,依然远远满足不了不同层次的教育需求;另一方面,大学生的学费连续攀升,高校贫困生人数不断增加。与高校强劲发展的势头形成鲜明对比的是,近年来我国义务教育出现不同程度的下滑,广大农村地区出现大量失学儿童,成为新的文盲、半文盲。出现这些问题的根本原因是政府在发展教育中的角色与职能定位不清晰,出现了越权与卸责现象。     

Educational quasi-markets,school effectiveness and social inequalities

Over the past few decades, the figure of the market has clearly made its way into the field of education. For some authors, it represents an alternative to regulation by the public authorities, a different form of co-ordination which is better able to meet the objectives of the education systems. Through a secondary analysis of the PISA 2006 database, we test this hypothesis, as well as an alternative one which suggests that the quasi-market, rather than being linked positively to effectiveness of the education systems, would be associated with the students’ achievement dependence on their socio-economic and cultural background and on the social composition of the school they are enrolled in. Our findings suggest that the quasi-market regulation (school autonomy and competition for student recruitment) (1) is not linked to effectiveness and (2) tends to be associated with a stronger link between schools’ social composition and student achievement.     

西方国家高等教育学费政策的变化及其影响--以英国、澳大利亚、爱尔兰和美国为例

20世纪90年代以来高等教育学费政策在许多国家发生了很大变化,这些变化对高等教育的发展产生了重要影响.以英国、澳大利亚、爱尔兰和美国等国为例,英国学费政策实施时间虽短但处于不断调整之中;澳大利亚毕业后付费政策在世界上独树一帜;爱尔兰反其道而行之,取消学费效果最终如何?美国引领世界高等教育潮流,学费不断上涨结果如何?是什么因素影响学费政策的变化?这些国家学费政策变化最终会产生什么影响?     

Education,Democracy and Poverty Reduction in Africa

This article explores the political relationship between education and poverty reduction. It argues that authoritarian rule in Africa has exacerbated levels of poverty and sets out six ways in which this has happened. However, the achievement of greater levels of democracy will not be possible unless political culture and civil society in Africa become more democratic but this will depend on the spread of more democratic values and behaviours. As democratic values and behaviours are socially learned and are not genetic, education must play a part in fostering greater democracy. The article then discusses three examples from Africa where education has not played a significant role in furthering democracy and provides some further examples of African countries where serious attempts are being made to try to change education systems in a more democratic direction.     

Tuition fees and the challenge of making higher education a popular commodity in South Africa

The funding of higher education in South Africa has in the recent past been a subject of animated debate. This debate has ranged from the adequacy of government funding of higher education, the suitability of the funding framework, to protestations against frequent tuition fee increases. At present, the debate is mainly about “free” higher education. Unlike most African countries, South Africa has an established history of cost sharing. But, for a while now, students, especially Black students, have been demanding tuition free higher education even though the country has a student financial aid scheme to support talented but poor students. The demands for tuition free higher education suggest, among others, the possible existence of financial barriers to higher educational opportunities. This paper is a sequel to the debate on free higher education in South Africa. It seeks, in the main, to understand and examine the rationale and drivers for the students’ demand for “free” higher education. What are the financial barriers to higher educational opportunities that the current funding architecture has failed to address? Secondly, why are students demanding free higher education when there is a scheme to support talented but poor students? Is cost sharing inconsistent with the country’s post-apartheid transformation policy in higher education? Finally, is “free” higher education the panacea to the access and participation challenges facing Black students?     

The end of free college in England: Implications for enrolments,equity, and quality

Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition fees on university enrolments, equity, and proxies for institutional quality. To do so, we study the English higher education system which has, in just two decades, moved from a free college system to one in which tuition fees are among the highest in the world. Our findings suggest that England's shift has resulted in increased funding per head and rising enrolments, with no apparent widening of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. The role of fees is moderated by other key features of higher education finance which may differ across countries: in contrast to other systems with high tuition fees, the English system is distinct in that its income-contingent loan system ensures that no tuition fees are paid upfront, and provides students with comparatively generous assistance for living expenses. Still, the English experience provides an instructive case for other countries considering implementing or abolishing tuition fees.     

Funding and the attainment of transformation goals in South Africa’s higher education

The link between the funding of higher education and the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa, especially access by students from previously under‐represented communities, is the main focus of this paper. Specifically, the paper examines three questions: (a) How does public funding of higher education encourage (or discourage) the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa? (b) What challenges do frequent tuition fee increases pose to the attainment of higher education transformation goals? (c) How can South Africa’s higher education be made affordable for indigent (mostly black) students? The paper concludes that although South Africa’s higher education funding formula is generally geared towards attaining the goals of transformation, several of its aspects are inimical to the achievement of these goals. Further, declining public funding of higher education and frequent tuition fee increases by public universities vis‐à‐vis higher education’s natural inclination to reproduce, and even to exacerbate, existing social disparities and inequalities do not bode well for the attainment of transformation in South Africa’s higher education. This is aggravated by existing high levels of poverty and inequality mostly affecting the majority of the communities that were marginalised during apartheid.     

The elusiveness of teacher quality: A comparative analysis of teacher certification and student achievement in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

In national education systems worldwide, teacher quality has become synonymous with education reform efforts, but a more elusive goal is empirically measuring teacher quality. One proposed measure of teacher quality, teacher licensing, also known as certification, is an increasingly ubiquitous component of national education systems and pre-service teacher education around the world. Rapidly developing national education systems, like those in the Arabian Gulf states, are actively seeking to measure teacher quality through teacher certification and to estimate teacher quality using scores on student achievement tests. This study synthesizes research literature and contextual data as a foundation for using hierarchical linear models to estimate the impact of teacher certification on student achievement in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Despite the emphasis on improving teacher quality by establishing teacher certification requirements in GCC national education systems, the researchers found neither a direct nor a consistent association between teacher certification and student achievement in the GCC.     

高等教育收费对教育机会均等的影响

自1997年起,全国所有高校基本实行学生缴费上学.随着高等教育收费,高校贫困生群体的凸现,不菲学费使一些低收入家庭子女可能面临失学,高校收费问题成为社会关注的热点,人们对于教育公平问题展开激烈的争论.本文就高校收费与教育机会均等的关系进行了浅议,认为高等教育收费可以扩大教育资源,增加人们接受高等教育的机会,从整体和长远看来是有利于教育公平的实现.但是亦会给教育公平带来不利的影响.     

高等教育学费二元结构的审视与调控

高等教育学费二元结构是公办和民办高校产权差异和学费制度差异的反映。公共财政不足造成了公办和民办高等教育的二元规制、市场的二元分割和市场功能定位的分化。这导致学费定价中政府与市场的边界不清、公办和民办高等教育学费标准的差异与质量的差异不对称、个人投资收益率的差异扩大、学费的资源配置功能弱化。“效率优先,兼顾公平”是其指导思想,其不利于先天禀赋不足的学生,其社会福利效应逐渐降低。在公共财政能力已经增强,高等教育已经大众化的背景下,应该取消对公办和民办高等教育的二元规制,加大民办高等教育的财政投入,提高民办高等教育的质量,加强民办高等教育的学生资助,消除高等教育学费二元结构的不利影响。     

英国高校国际学生学费的变化及其对高等教育的影响

在全球化时代，高等院校学生的全球流动给国际学生输入国的政治、经济以及高等教育带来了重要影响。英国作为国际学生的主要接收国之一，其优质的高等教育吸引着来自世界各地的学生。在新自由主义意识形态、国际教育服务贸易理念与高等教育财政拨款投入制度的影响下，英国逐步向国际学生收取高额学费。英国高校国际学生学费的变化呈现出新的特点，影响着国际学生的来源结构、生源数量与质量，可能导致高校课程调整与师资流失。国际学生学费的变化引发了英国社会对高等教育市场化取向与国际学生公平教育权益的讨论，并实施了将国际学生学费与院校国际教育质量挂钩、以奖助学金形式平衡国际学生学费压力等具体改革举措。     

Region,resources, and reason: A contextual analysis of state tuition and student aid policies

This paper reports on an investigation of differences and similarities across the 50 states in approaches to the pricing and discounting, via student aid, of undergraduate education. To examine national patterns in tuition and aid policies, the analysis used recent state-by-state data and multivariate statistical methods. The results suggest that region, social and economic resources, and postsecondary governance arrangements each have distinctive connections to the nature of states' tuition and aid policies. Of particular interest are the results relating to high-tuition/high-aid policies at the state level, an approach termed by proponents therationalization of tuition and aid policy. Multiple regression analysis revealed rationalization to be primarily a regionally driven phenomenon concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest. Rationalization showed weaker, but still significant, connections to the states' population, personal income levels, extent of reliance on private postsecondary institutions, and governance arrangements. Implications of these findings for theory and policy are discussed.     

学生资助和高等教育机会均等(续2)——对中日美3国的比较分析

本期主要讨论日本、中国的学费和学生资助状况。在日本,学费上涨很快,但是学生资助制度没有及时得到完善。国家财政提供的资助主要通过日本学生资助机构办理。该资助属贷款而不是赠予,学生在毕业后必须偿还。多数私立大学虽设立了具有其特色的奖助贷学金,但获资助学生非常少。即便是日本国立大学的学生,其教育费负担也很重。在中国,公立大学的学费飞速上涨。虽然中国的学生资助类型多样,但是赠予型多用于奖优,助贫主要靠贷款,借贷学生的偿还压力很大。中日两国都有待于进一步改善其教育机会均等化政策。     

Dynamics of community participation,student achievement and school management: the case of primary schools in a rural area of Malawi

School management in many sub-Saharan African countries has been enhanced through community participation in an attempt to improve education quality. This study uses field research in a rural district of Malawi to assess how community and parent participation differs between schools, the intentions of communities and parents when carrying out activities in schools, and the mechanism promoting active participation in schools. In high-achieving schools, but not in low-achieving schools, communities and parents were actively involved in events aimed at improving student achievement. Communities and parents considered most highly prioritised activities that directly influenced student achievement, including hiring volunteer teachers, arranging extra classes and holding mock examinations. Community participation did not directly improve student achievement. Instead, when communities and parents actively participated in a school, school management improved, ensuring better student achievement. The implications of this finding are discussed in relation to community participation.     

Access to Higher Education for Disadvantaged Groups in China

From our correspondent Jiao Xinzhu: According to the Petitions Department of the State Education Commission, thousand of letters have been received from twenty-six provinces and municipalities nationwide complaining about the problem of county and township (townlet) middle and primary schools indiscriminately charging and increasing tuition fees and miscellaneous fees [self-imposed fees; self-fixed rates; student recruitment at "negotiated prices"; paid repeater courses]. The existence of this phenomenon has increased the financial burden on students' parents, obstructed the implementation of China's nine-year system of compulsory education, and created a new batch of illiterates. Many parents are demanding that the state take measures to end the indiscriminate imposition and raising of tuition and miscellaneous fees as quickly as possible.     

What is the influence of cultural capital on student reading achievement in Confucian as compared to non-Confucian heritage societies?

Abstract

The present study compared the contribution of familial cultural capital to the reading achievement of 116,508 15-year-old students who participated in PISA 2012 in six Confucian heritage cultures (CHCs) and nine non-CHCs with comparable educational and economic development. The different states of cultural capital examined comprised institutionalised (maternal, paternal education) and objectified (educational, cultural resources) indicators. Results showed that: (1) cultural capital levels were lower in CHCs (vis-à-vis non-CHCs); (2) cultural capital was generally positively related to student achievement in CHCs and non-CHCs; (3) the relationships between all cultural capital indicators, except educational resources, and achievement were weaker in CHCs than non-CHCs; and (4) objectified (vis-à-vis institutionalised) cultural capital was more strongly associated with achievement in CHCs. These results suggest that the stronger sociocultural emphasis on education in CHCs may have moderated cultural capital effects on student achievement and enabled more students to succeed academically.     

中国高等教育财政经费来源的变迁:国家财政经费与个人学杂费关系的实证研究

本文利用统计数据对国家财政经费与个人学杂费变化状况、高等教育经费弹性系数和个人负担率进行了计算分析,在此基础上建立自回归模型对2010年的国家财政经费与个人学杂费进行了预测研究,获得的研究结论是:中国的高等教育成本分担政策已经快速实现,国家财政经费比重显著降低,个人学杂费所占比重较快地增加;人均高等教育经费在1999年之前保持增长,1999年之后呈现稳中趋降;个人及其家庭的财政贡献增长速度远远大于政府财政贡献的增长速度,也意味着个人及其家庭对高等教育的经济负担大大加重;今后一段时间内高等教育财政需求面临相当大的压力和隐忧。建议控制高等教育规模的过快扩张,关注生均教育财政指标变化状况,实现高等教育财政来源的更加多样化。