Abstract
In large-scale international studies, such as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), 20% of the Romanian fourth graders fall below the lowest achievement benchmark and 50% fall under the two lowest out of five possible mathematics international achievement benchmarks. According to these findings, we are interested to understand which students are achieving closest to what could be expected of them to achieve, and at which level is the school system failing the students.
These research questions were answered using TIMSS 2011 data. The predicted scores of all participating fourth graders within the five international achievement benchmarks defined in TIMSS, have been estimated. The variables used to estimate the appropriate predicted scores in the context of an equitable framework were related to family background and family focus on learning and development prior to entering primary education. Then, these predicted scores were compared with the corresponding achieved scores within each achievement group level, to observe if there are any significant differences. The aim is to see if the students in the lowest or in the highest achievement group level could achieve higher based on their family and background characteristics.
The findings show that the students in the lowest achievement group level, which would have the potential and family educational support of achieving higher, are offered with insufficient resources and support, considering that 40% of all these students achieved scores significantly lower than the average predicted score for this achievement group level. This identifies a substantive issue of primary education in the system under study. On the other extreme, it is observed that more resources and support are invested in the high achievers, whose scores are significantly higher than what is predicted for this achievement group level, using the individual and family background variables. Identifying factors that contribute to such differences between the achieved and predicted scores among primary school students at the different achievement group levels, will be also touched upon briefly at the end of the presentation.
