Retention Effects on Science Performance in Portugal in PISA 2006 and 2009

Author(s):

Joseph Conboy(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 11 B, Effectiveness of Science Teaching

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

16:45-18:15

Room:

J 24/14,G, 20

Chair:

Salvador Peiró-i-Gregòri

Contribution

After years of poor science literacy results, Portugal was reported to have achieved substantial gains in the 2009 PISA tests (OECD, 2010). While part of the gains may be attributable to the successive reforms of the Ministry of Education, part may also be the result of the moderating effect of falling retention rates. While the retention practices in Portugal have been described as excessive and outside de norms of other OECD countries (Moreira, Santos & Conboy, 2010), retention rates are falling and the Portuguese Ministry of Education has established a goal of further reducing retention rates (Ministério da Educação, 2010). Even so, the question of academic retention continues to be a powerful and controversial discourse in educational policy in Portugal, where calls for a reduction in retention rates have been met with heated opposition and the accusation that these policies represent appeasement and academic laxity (facilitismo) (Conboy, 2010).

Within the framework of (a) large-scale international assessments (Rutkowski, Gonzalez, Jonca, & von Davier, 2010), (b) the debate over the efficacy of retention practices (Brophy, 2006; Penfield, 2010), and focusing on science performance, we compare the 2006 and 2009 PISA samples in Portugal with regards to retention and science performance. An analysis of the characteristics of retained students will be presented as well as hierarchical linear models of the effect of retention on performance, controlling for school-level and individual student-level socioeconomic-cultural status (ESCS).

Method

In PISA 2006, the Portuguese sample consisted of 5109 students from 173 schools; in 2009, 6298 students from 212 schools were sampled. All students in the samples were aged between 15 years, three months and 16 years, two months old. All attended, at a minimum, the 7th grade. The cluster sampling process is described in OECD (2007, 2009, 2010). All values presented in the Results are based on 80 weighted replicates of each of the five plausible values that are reported in the database (OECD, 2009; Rutkowski et al., 2010). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, ver. 17.0) and associated macros and syntax files provided by the OECD. In addition, we used the statistical program HLM (ver. 6.08) for multi-level analyses (Raudenbush, Bryk, Cheong, Congdon & du Toit, 2004).

Expected Outcomes

Previous research suggests that, in Portugal, retention must be taken into consideration when analyzing data from large-scale assessments (Conboy, 2010a, 2010b; Moreira et al. 2010). Other countries with high rates of retention should consider this dimension as they analyze their national data. As measured by HLM Change-in-Score coefficients, retention status has been shown to be a more powerful predictor of science achievement than ESCS--either personal or aggregated (Conboy, 2010b). Neither curriculum nor teaching practice seem implicated in the poor science results previously observed in Portugal. Such low performance is a partial artifact of age-based sampling coupled with high retention. One useful approach to influence achievement is to work to modify the social discourse about retention and demonstrate that there is no need to choose between academic excellence, on the one hand, and what frequently is perceived as academic facilitismo, on the other.

References

Brophy, J. (2006). Grade repetition. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001520/152038e.pdf Conboy, J. (2010a, Dezembro 19). O que dizem, realmente, os resultados do PISA? Público, 32. (OECD, 2010). Conboy, J. (2010b). Retention and science performance in Portugal as evidenced by PISA. (unpublished, submitted). Ministério da Educação. (2010). Programa educação 2015. Retrieved from http://w3.dren.min-edu.pt/uploads/user_id_2/file/20100921153621 _Estrategia_2015_Directores.pdf Moreira, I., Santos, I., & Conboy, J.(2010). A retenção académica e performance a ciências em Portugal evidenciadas no PISA 2006. (unpublished, submitted). OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2007). PISA 2006: Science competencies for tomorrow's world. Volume 1: Analysis. Paris: OECD Publishing. OECD- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2009). PISA data analysis manual: SPSS (2nd edition). Paris: OECD Publishing. OECD- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010). PISA 2009 Results: What students know and can do. Paris: OECD Publishing. Penfield, R. (2010). Test-based grade retention: Does it stand up to Professional standards for fair and appropriate test use? Educational Researcher, 39(2), 110-119. doi:10.3102/0013189X10363007 Raudenbush, S., Bryk, A., Cheong, Y. F., Congdon, R., & du Toit, M. (2004). HLM 6: Hierarchical Linear & Nonlinear Modeling. Lincolnwood: Scientific Software International, Inc. Rutkowski, L., Gonzalez, E., Joncas, M., & von Davier, M. (2010). International Large-scale assessment data: Issues in secondary analysis and reporting. Educational Researcher, 39(2), 142-151. doi:10.3102/0013189X10363170

Author Information

Joseph Conboy (presenting / submitting)

Univertsity of Lisbon

Institute of Education

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