Author : Thomas Anh Shirley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781321363876
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (638 download)
Book Synopsis Language Learners and the Impact of Reading Ability and Socioeconomic Inequality on Science and Math Achievement by : Thomas Anh Shirley
Download or read book Language Learners and the Impact of Reading Ability and Socioeconomic Inequality on Science and Math Achievement written by Thomas Anh Shirley and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the results of such large-scale international tests, such as the PISA, are increasingly used as benchmarks of the success or failure of national education systems worldwide, the validity of such assessments for all subgroups should be analyzed. For the first part of the study, I first leveraged a multilevel modeling (MLM) approach to consider the effects of reading ability, math ability, and socioeconomic status (SES) on science achievement at the student and country levels simultaneously. The same was done for math achievement, excluding math ability as an independent variable. Although language ability consists of three key components, speaking, reading, and writing skills, this study will solely focus on reading ability, as measured by the PISA Reading score. I then conducted a discriminate function analysis (DFA) to investigate the degree of discriminating power that a student's reading ability, math ability, and SES has between high and low science achieving students. Excluding math ability, I did the same for high and low math achievers. The results revealed that reading and math ability had significant impacts on science achievement, whereas, only science ability influenced math achievement at both student and country levels. In contrast to an abundance of literature, the three measures of socioeconomic status, e.g. PISA SES Index, Income Inequality Gini, and Education Inequality Gini, did not have significant effects in these analyses. These results mutually support a parallel study (Shirley, 2014). Further analysis is required to conclude which aspect of reading, science, and math abilities has the most effect. In the second part of the study, I conducted a differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to examine question/item bias of Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 science items towards non-language learners (non-LLs) over language learners (LLs) across 45 countries. I used item response theory (IRT) based DIF techniques on the 35 science items from PISA 2009 Booklet 3. The findings revealed at least five items may have DIF, four of which are biased against LLs. However, identifying the possible source of the DIF is beyond the scope of this study. In the third and final part of the study, I conducted a series of differential item functioning (DIF) analyses to examine if three country-level socioeconomic factors (CountrySES, Income Inequality, and Education Inequality) exacerbate question/item bias of PISA 2009 science items towards non-language learners (non-LLs) over language learners (LLs). I used item response theory (IRT) based DIF techniques on the 35 science items from Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 Booklet 3. The findings revealed there is a slight pattern of exacerbation of item bias against LLs, however, these findings were not practically significant. These results mutually support a parallel study (Shirley, 2014a). However, identifying the possible source of the DIF is beyond the scope of this study.
