In recent years, Kosovo has implemented a number of measures to improve quality assurance mechanisms in Kosovo. Participation in large-scale international comparative assessments is part of a monitoring strategy to compare the educational performance of Kosovo's primary and secondary school students with that of children and young adults in neighboring countries, the region, the European Union and other parts of the world, and as such has served as a key indicator of educational quality (MEST, 2020). International monitoring reports and the few academic studies that have been published reveal substantial differences in educational achievement at both primary and secondary levels in terms of student background and family indicators, place of residence (urban vs. rural areas) and school type (OECD; 2023; Mullis et al., 2017). However, in Kosovo, the rich sources of data obtained through participation in international large-scale assessments remain underutilized for educational research and monitoring, and thus have little to offer for evidence-based policy making in education. To date, inequalities have only been partially documented for achievement, but not for other important outcomes of schooling (Pavesic et al., 2022). Moreover, the causes of inequality have not been systematically investigated.

This symposium aims to bring together different perspectives to provide a more coherent picture of educational equity and quality in Kosovo. It will also broaden the perspective of educational equity, whereas to date, large-scale educational monitoring studies have mainly been used to analyse variations in student performance and equity within and across education systems over time. Other perspectives of educational equity, such as participation and recognition equity, are often neglected. These perspectives do not only take into account achievement levels, variances or minimum competence levels, but also focus on capabilities for social and political participation and on factors such as the quality of social relations, the recognition of individual autonomy and voice, and well-being as an end in itself. On the basis of the four papers, inequality will be examined in terms of a) approaches to teaching, b) the relationship between motivation and achievement, c) explanations of gender differences, and d) comparisons with neighboring countries. The symposium will thus provide a basis for a critical review of the extent to which large-scale studies such as TIMSS and PISA incorporate different foci of educational equity in their concepts, indicators and analytical approaches. The relevance and challenges of including valid and reliable measures of equity concepts in the indicator set of these studies will be illustrated by discussing some secondary analyses of LSA data for Kosovo.

MEST (2022). Assessment Report for 2019 on the Kosovo Education Strategic Plan 2017-2021. Prishtina. Assessment Report for 2019 on the Kosovo Education Strategic Plan 2017-2021 - MASHT (rks-gov.net) Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, P., Olson, J. F. & Preuschoff, C. (2017). PIRLS 2016 International Results in Reading.: Findings form IEA's trend in international mathematics and science study at the fourth and eighth grades. TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center Lynch School of Education Boston College. https://timss.bc.edu/TIMSS2007/mathreport.html OECD. (2023). Programme for International Student Assessment. OECD. PISA - PISA (oecd.org) Pavešic, B., & Koršˇnáková, Paulina, Meinck, Sabine. (2022). Dinaric Perspectives on TIMSS 2019: Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science in South-Eastern Europe. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85802-5