Debate on grade repetition: An empirical study from pisa 2015

Abstract

Grade repetition is one of the major concerns in the Spanish educational system because its rate doubles the average performance of both OECD member countries and European countries. Grade repetition is usually linked to school failure and dropout instead of bringing student’s academic level onto an equal plane. This research empirically identifies the variables which repeating and non-repeating students have in common and those possible variables which have a higher influence in retaking a year. Thus, the student context questionnaire development provided by OECD PISA 2015 for Spain has been used. These questionnaires provide information on variables linked to the student’s background and also processes and non-cognitive outcomes. All of this information allows for the identification of the characteristics of both repeating and non-repeating students. Decision tree techniques and binary logistic regression have been applied to analyze the data. Results show that the educational aspirations and the fact of having studied a scientific module during the previous academic year are the main variables. The main finding of this study is that the probability of repeating an academic year is more influenced by process variables (learning time and curriculum) than by the student’s background.This outcome is contrary to what has been perpetuated through literature and starts a new educational perspective regarding grade repetition from a pedagogical point of view and a lower socioeconomic focus.