Educational attainment in the short and long term: was there an advantage to attending faith,private, and selective schools for pupils in the 1980s?

ABSTRACT

This paper asks whether private, selective, and faith schools in England and Wales in the 1980s provided an academic advantage to their pupils, both in the short and longer term. Using longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examine academic outcomes in compulsory schooling and further education, and the highest qualification gained by age 42. School sector differences are substantially attenuated by controlling for prior pupil characteristics. Nevertheless, a residual effect of private, grammar, and secondary modern schooling remains, both in the short and long term, controlling for both pupil and school characteristics. In the case of faith schools, however, the apparent advantage is restricted to the short term once pupil characteristics are controlled. A unique feature of our analysis is that we control for the individual’s faith of upbringing, which is important in reducing what could otherwise be seen as a distinctive Catholic school advantage.     

Students’ Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom. Revealing Causes and Consequences

Students’ affective domain has been popular in the mathematics education community in an ongoing attempt to understand students’ learning behavior. Specifically, enhancing students’ motivation in the mathematics classroom is an important issue for teachers and researchers, due to its relation to students’ behavior and achievement. This paper utilized achievement goal theory—an important theoretical prospect on students’ motivation in school settings—to investigate the existence of a model presenting the relation between motivation and other affective constructs and students’ performance in mathematics. In this regard, two types of tests were administered to 321 sixth grade students measuring their motivation and other affective constructs and their performance in mathematics. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the associations among the affective constructs, motivation, and the extent to which these constructs influence students’ performance and interest in mathematics. The data revealed that students’ performance and their interest in mathematics were influenced by fear of failure, self-efficacy beliefs, and achievement goals. We discuss these findings in terms of teaching implications in the mathematics classroom.     

Equality of educational opportunity at racially isolated schools: Balancing the need for teacher certification with teacher shortage

Providing for equality of educational opportunity at racially isolated schools continues to be an important area of concern for educational policy makers. Quality teachers to staff instruction programs at these schools is essential to promoting equal opportunity for minority groups. Unfortunately, these schools continue to suffer chronic teacher shortages. Recently, California implemented a teacher certification examination (CBEST) designed specifically to improve the quality of teachers entering the profession. An unintended consequence of the certification movement was the exacerbation of the teacher shortage problem at racially isolated schools. The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of teachers who passed and failed the CBEST. The study finds that failure rates are highest among minority teachers that are presently employed. The study also finds that the mathematics knowledge subscale scores best discriminate those passing from those failing the CBEST. An analytical approach for determining optimal cutoff scores on the CBEST which balances the need for certification with the problem of teacher shortage is proposed.