Learning should not be hindered by whether a child comes from a poor family, has an immigrant background, is raised by a single parent or has limited resources at home. This is something, that most of the successful educational systems have understood and the different systems have found ways in how to allocate resources and to level the playfield (OECD 2016.). However, many family related factors and other socioecnomical and cultural factors still have an significant impact on students educational outcome (Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2014, Yamamoto & Holloway 2010). It also seems that different type of background factors have a different effect on the outcome and in different area this might be different (Vettenranta and Harju-Luukkainen 2013; Harju-Luukkainen and Vettenranta 2014; Vettenranta 2015; Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2016). According to international assessments, especially important seems to be parental high expectations towards their child (Yamamoto & Holloway 2010). Other socio-economically related factors seems to have a positive impact, but lower. This study investigates the relationship between family related factors and student’s educational outcome in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015, collected from the fourth graders in Finland. Based on these premises, the following research question is formulated: is there any geographical variation in the effect size of Finnish students’ outcome in mathematics in TIMMS 2015 and the family related background variables?

Harju-Luukkainen, H. and Vettenranta, J. (2013). The influence of local culture on students’ educational outcomes. In Interaction in Educational Domains, K. Tirri and E. Kuusisto (eds.), 77–90. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Harju-Luukkainen, H., Nissinen, K., Sulkunen, S. and Suni, M. (2014) Avaimet osaamiseen ja tulevaisuuteen: Selvitys maahanmuuttajataustaisten nuorten osaamisen tasosta ja siihen liittyvistä taustatekijöistä PISA 2012–tutkimuksessa. (Keys to competence and future. A report on PISA 2012 results and related underlying factors for students with an immigrant background.) Jyväskylä: Finnish Institute for Educational Research. Harju-Luukkainen, H. and Vettenranta, J. (2014). Social capital and local variation in student performance in Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia in Finland. In Place and Education, E. Hyry, E. Estola and M. Hiltunen (eds.), 127–143. Oulu: University of Oulu. Harju-Luukkainen, H. K., Tarnanen, M., Nissinen, K., & Vettenranta, J. (2017, in press). Economical, social and cultural status (ESCS) and mathematics performance of immigrant students' in the Finnish metropolitan area in PISA 2012. Teoksessa S. Garvis, & E. Eriksen Ødegaard (eds.), The book on Nordic Dialogues on Children and Families. Routledge. Harju-Luukkainen, H. K., Vettenranta, J., Ouakrim-Soivio, N., & Bernelius, V. H. (2016). Differences between students’ PISA reading literacy scores and grading for mother tongue and literature at school: A geostatistical analysis of the Finnish PISA 2009 data. Education Inquiry, 7(4), 463-479. DOI: 10.3402/edui.v7.29413 McCoy, J. and Johnston, K. (2001). Using ArcGis™ Spatial Analyst. New York: ESRI. OECD (2016). PISA 2015 Results in Focus. Paris: OECD Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf (21.1.2017). Vettenranta, J. and Harju-Luukkainen, H. (2013). A New Way of Recognizing the Spatial Distribution of Educational Issues: Regional Variation of Science Literacy in the Finnish TIMSS 2011 Data. 5th IEA International research conference. TIMSS and TIMSS advanced. http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2013/Papers/IRC-2013_Vettenranta_Harju-Luukkainen.pdf (Accessed 2017-01-21). Vettenranta, J. (2015). Koulutuksellinen tasa-arvo Suomessa [Educational equality in Finland]. In Millä eväillä tulevaisuuden peruskoulu nousuun? Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja 2015:9, J. Välijärvi and P. Kupari (eds.). Helsinki: Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö. Yamamoto, Y. & Holloway, S.D. (2010). Parental Expectations and Children’s Academic Perfomance in Sociocultural Context. Educational Psychology Reviw, 22 (3), 189-214. Doi:10.1007/s10648-010-9121-z