Academic performance of Spanish compulsory secondary education students in a context of vulnerability and multiculturalism

Abstract

This paper presents a research study carried out on the academic performance of Spanish compulsory secondary education (ESO) students in a context of vulnerability and multiculturalism. The students' expectations are analyzed, as well as the relationship between the parents' level of education and the students' academic performance in the subject of Spanish Language, and how such performance might be affected by the family language. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software, version 19. The results show that immigrant students obtain lower grades than their native peers (regardless of their parents' origin) although the higher the parents' level of education, the better the students' academic performance. Moreover, unemployment affects students more negatively when the father is unemployed. Students perform better when the family language and the school language are the same (Spanish), especially in the subject of Spanish Language. However, given the large number of variables that influence academic performance, and despite the results of this research, caution should be taken when generalizing the results, which should be limited to the particular circumstances of the research context.