The aims of the study were to examine changes in school segregation across different types of municipalities between 1998 and 2011 in Sweden, and to explore the extent to which these changes are the consequences of school choice. Multilevel models were applied to register data using a counterfactual approach. The results showed that school segregation with respect to migration background and educational achievement had increased over time, while social segregation remained rather constant. The degree of school segregation varied largely across different municipality types, and it was concluded that school choice was a determinant of school segregation. The findings have strong policy implications and are discussed in relation to the recent educational reforms in Sweden.

Background: Students with low socio‐economic status (SES) are typically depicted as low performers and more likely to fail in school. However, a group of students, despite their background, manage to succeed in school. The capacity to overcome adversities and achieve successful educational outcomes is referred to as Academic Resilience. Research on the relationship between personality traits and academic performance shows that conscientiousness is a crucial factor in predicting academic success and resilience. However, it has also been shown that achievement is a result of an interaction between conscientiousness and students’ interest in the subject. Aims: The study aims to investigate how students’ school‐related perseverance and interest predict academic achievement among resilient and non‐resilient pupils over time in the Swedish compulsory school setting. Sample: Study subjects were a subset ( N = 1,665) of the sampled compulsory school students from the 1992 birth cohort in the evaluation through follow‐up (ETF) database. Methods: Multigroup structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent variable interaction was used. Measurement invariance was tested to examine the comparability of the constructs across groups. Results: The results suggest that resilient students rely heavily on both perseverance of effort and interest in school subjects to succeed in their education. For the non‐resilient group, the later perseverance level was conditioned on the level of the interest, and neither their early nor later grade interest was related to their achievement. Conclusions: The academically resilient students displayed more consistency in interest and perseverance over time, which might explain their relative success compared to the non‐resilient group.

The current study investigated the spatial restructuring of the Swedish upper secondary school market over time, which happened as a consequence of school choice reform started in the early 1990s. The school choice reform enabled students to choose and attend schools (public or private) based on preference rather than residential area. Consequently, public and private school providers compete for students in a form of quasi-market. Using register data for Swedish upper secondary school students from 1997 to 2011 (N = 664,895), the study showed two major changes in school market structure: an increase in urbanised commuting patterns and differentiated school choice possibilities within and across municipalities. The assumption of economic balance between supply and demand through school choice is strongly contested by these outcomes. Furthermore, not only is market failure prevalent and creating differences in educational opportunities between places but these tendencies are so far progressively escalating over time and demonstrating how students’ choices today affect and limit educational opportunities for future students.

The aim of the study is to investigate the measurement invariance of mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy across 40 countries that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 and 2012 cycles. The sample of the study consists of 271,760 students in PISA 2003 and 333,804 students in PISA 2012. Firstly, the traditional measurement invariance testing was applied in the multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA). Then, the alignment analyses were performed, allowing non-invariance to a minimum to estimate all of the parameters. Results from MGCFA indicate that mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy hold metric invariance across the 80 groups (cycle by country). The alignment method results suggest that a large proportion of non-invariance exists in both mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy factors, and the factor means cannot be compared across all participating countries. Results of the Monte Carlo simulation show that the alignment results are trustworthy. Implications and limitations are discussed, and some recommendations for future research are proposed.

This study examines the relationship between instructional quality and mathematics achievement, taking into account socioeconomic status. Data from ten European countries participating in PISA 2012 and 2022 were analysed using the framework of the Dynamic Modelling of Educational Effectiveness. In PISA 2012, instructional quality was defined by student-oriented instruction, classroom management, teacher support, disciplinary climate, and cognitive activation. The finding indicated that teacher support, disciplinary climate, and cognitive activation positively predict student achievement, but dimensions of student-oriented instruction and classroom management were negatively related in several countries. Instructional quality was captured by four dimensions in PISA 2022, namely, teacher support, disciplinary climate, cognitive activation in mathematics of encouraging mathematical thinking and of fostering reasoning. Teacher support and disciplinary climate had a positive effect on achievement, but two aspects of cognitive activation had opposite effects on achievement. SES also had significant indirect effects on achievement through various instructional quality dimensions. Across two PISA cycles, teacher support, disciplinary climate, and cognitive activation consistently benefited low-SES students, while classroom management and student-oriented instruction tended to harm their performance. These results underscore the role of instructional quality in promoting equity for disadvantaged students. Trend data from these two cycles of PISA, give an indication of specific instructional strategies that do consistently contribute to student achievement. Implications and findings are discussed in relation to the policy and practice context in different education systems.