The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) (e.g., Scottish Executive, 2004; Scottish Government, 2008) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational development in Scotland in a generation (Priestley & Humes, 2010). Implemented from 2010, the holistic, competency-based curriculum for those aged 3-18 years seeks to prepare children and young people for the workplace and citizenship in the 21st century (Scottish Government, 2009).

Previous studies have examined how the breadth of the Scottish secondary curriculum (defined as the number of entries to National 5 qualifications in year 4 of secondary education in Scotland, S4) narrowed under CfE (Shapira & Priestley, 2018, 2019) and investigated the relationship between CfE breadth and attainment in school (Shapira et al., 2022).

Given the four capacities framework of CfE, one might assume that students exposed to a broad upper secondary curriculum would not only attain better academic results and move to positive destinations, but also develop skills and competences that indicate they have a better understanding of the complexities of modern societies, awareness of the world and its contemporary problems, cultural openness and sensitivity, self-awareness and resilience, and active citizenship. In other words, it seems that the breadth of the secondary curriculum could be linked to measures of the OECD global competencies.

This paper aims to explore the relationships between the measures of competence of 15-year-old students in Scotland, available in the 2018 Scotland’s PISA dataset, and the breadth of the secondary curriculum experienced by 15-16 year-olds in state-funded secondary schools in Scotland. 

In this study we linked between the Scottish Government administrative education data (SGAED) and the 2018 PISA data for Scotland using the source code that allowed matching between the school ID variable in the PISA dataset and the school ID variable in the SGAED. The source code was provided to us by the Scottish Government Analytical Services. Scottish Government administrative education data In this study we used administrative data on subject enrolment, attainment, and initial destinations of Scottish school leavers, for all state-funded secondary schools in Scotland, special schools excluded (363 in total), for years 2011-2019, provided by the Scottish Government. PISA Data The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that began in 2000 with the aim of evaluating education systems worldwide. It tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating countries/economies, focusing on key subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science. Every three years, a randomly selected group of fifteen-year-olds take the tests, which are not linked directly to school curriculum, but are designed to assess how well students can apply their knowledge to real-life situations (OECD, 2020). In 2018, PISA added an assessment of ‘Global Competence’, which evaluates students’ abilities of cognitive reasoning concerning global and intercultural issues, as well as their socio-emotional skills and attitudes. These new measures were introduced in order to assess whether students are ready to ‘thrive in an interconnected world’ (OECD, 2020). The variables we used include: o PISA Maths, English and Science Test scores o Age & Gender o An number of ensures describing the family background such as paternal education, family wealth and educational resources, etc. Other measures from the PISA dataset included measures of well-being and global competences including: Belonging to school; Being informed about international conflicts, migration and climate change; Adapting to different situations Being able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously; Learning about and respecting other cultures at school; Awareness of the world's problems. Methods We used descriptive and inferential data analysis methods, including multilevel regression modelling (level 1 - individual students nested in level 2 - secondary schools), to explore the relationship between the average number of National 5-level qualifications subject entries made by students in year 4 of secondary education and 1) attainment, as measured by PISA Math, Science and English scores, 2) numerous measures of OECD global competences, while controlling for the characteristics of students, their families, and their schools.

In summary, we found that the number of subject choices entered in schools for National 5 level qualifications in S4 was positively associated with attainment measured by PISA English and Maths test scores. The positive relationship remained statistically significant after controlling for individual, family, and school-level characteristics. Furthermore, the analysis of the relationship between the subject choice in S4 and measures of global competences revealed that, after controlling for students' age and gender, their family's education, economic, social, and cultural resources, and immigration status, and the school's SIMD, % FSM, % ASN, and student/teacher ratio, the positive relationship between the average number of subjects entered by students in schools for National 5 qualifications in S4 was statistically significant for PISA composite indexes • awareness about importance of intercultural communications, • global mindedness, • resilience • sense of belonging to schools. These findings suggest that enrolling in a broad range of subjects in S4 and, thus, a broader secondary curriculum, is associated with the wider competencies of young people, preparing them better for life in a modern, complex and interconnected world.

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