It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main criticisms of this body of research is in the set of variables that explain academic success for low-SES students and which is not very different from the variables that would explain academic success for all students. The objectives of this article are dual: firstly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic success, regardless of student SES, and secondly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic resilience, that is, exclusively for low-SES students. To this end, we used data from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011. The study sample covered 23,354 students in 720 schools in the five countries. The strategy for analysis was driven by fit of logistic regression models, first predicting the probability of academic success and then subsequent identification of variables significant as predictors for success within the pool of low-SES students. Results indicated that variables, such as positive student attitude to mathematics, teacher confidence in student performance and the test language being spoken at home, were associated with greater chances of academic success. High academic expectations and time spent on mathematics at home demonstrated a differential effect between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in Singapore. In Korea, being male (gender) and in Taipei, low levels of bullying at school, increased the likelihood of resilience. Results suggested that interventions impacting behavior reflected in differentially associated variables could help disadvantaged students to become academically resilient.

The article employs exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to evaluate constructs of economic, cultural, and social capital in international large-scale assessment (LSA) data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. ESEM integrates the theory-generating approach of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and theory-testing approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). It relaxes the zero-loading restriction in CFA, allowing items to load on different factors simultaneously, and it provides measurement invariance tests across countries not available in EFA. A main criticism of international LSA studies is the extended use of indicators poorly grounded in theory, like socioeconomic status, that prevent the study of mechanisms underlying associations with student outcomes. This article contributes to addressing this criticism by providing statistical criteria to evaluate the fit of well-defined sociological constructs with the empirical data.

This publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the most important issues facing teachers during the early stages of their careers. The effectiveness of teachers fresh to the profession is an important policy issue, especially knowing the impact that teachers have on student learning. The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first and only international survey on the conditions of teaching and learning. This report uses the TALIS 2008 dataset to analyse key aspects of new teachers’ work and highlight policy implications. This publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the most important issues facing teachers during the early stages of their careers. The effectiveness of teachers fresh to the profession is an important policy issue, especially knowing the impact that teachers have on student learning. The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first and only international survey on the conditions of teaching and learning. This report uses the TALIS 2008 dataset to analyse key aspects of new teachers’ work and highlight policy implications.

The extent to which education has a long-term impact on the way students view themselves and the world is a key question, not least when curricula with an international character claim to develop attributes aligned with global citizenship. To our knowledge, there have been few, if any, longitudinal studies that assess the impact of curricula that make such claims. Examining students’ and alumni perceptions of an experiential element of one particular curriculum designed with this aim, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, we found that some of the most marked effects stress individual benefits. This raises questions about the potential of an international curriculum, such as that explored here, to disrupt existing attitudes and behaviours in such a way as to make a sustainable better world for all.

Recently, there has been increasing interest in comparing educational leadership measures, such as principal school leadership, using International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) data. However, there are doubts about the uniformity of measurement across countries participating in the ILSAs. There are concerns that the robustness and psychometric characteristics of measures are adversely affected by socio-cultural, economic, political, and linguistic diversity across countries. The current study examines the uniformity of cross-cultural model data for the “principal instructional leadership scale” using the framework and data supplied by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Teaching and Learning International Surveyis employed to estimate the conceptual measurement model and test measurement invariance across forty-eight countries. Countries are then divided countries into more homogenous groups, based on their socio-demographic characteristics, to test measurement invariance within these sub-groups. The results of this study reveal that, when testing for the fourty-eight countries together, the scale measuring principals’ school leadership is invariant across all countries only at an intermediate level (i.e. metric). This means the factor structures and the factor loadings are equivalent across countries, but the item intercepts are not. However, when testing within sub-groups, improvements in cross-cultural comparability are found. This paper concludes by making suggestions on scale improvement, discussing the implications of this study for policymaking and making recommendations for future research.