Equity and excellence between speaking Swedish and speaking Finnish students in Finland Evidence for policy formulation to reduce the difference in PISA performance performance PISA in difference the reduce to formulation policy for Evidence Jouni Vettenranta Satya Brink Kari Nissinen Brink – Nissinen – Vettenranta EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE Equity and excellence Finnish Institute for Educational Research Reports 47 Equity and excellence Evidence for policy formulation to reduce the difference in PISA performance between Swedish speaking and Finnish speaking students in Finland Satya Brink Kari Nissinen Jouni Vettenranta THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE OBTAINED FROM: Finnish Institute for Educational Research Customer services P.O. Box 35 FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland Phone +358 40 805 4276 E-mail: [email protected] www.ier-publications.fi © Authors and The Finnish Institute for Educational Research In co-operation with The Finnish Education Evaluation Council Cover and graphic design: Martti Minkkinen Layout: Kaija Mannström Map template: CSC-IT Center for Science ISSN-L 1456-5153 ISSN 1456-5153 (printed version) ISSN 2243-139X (pdf) ISBN 978-951-39-5275-4 (printed version) ISBN 978-951-39-5276-1 (pdf) Printed by University Printing House Jyväskylä 2013 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Tiivistelmä ...............................................................................................................................................................13 Sammandrag .........................................................................................................................................................15 Foreword ................................................................................................................................................................. 17 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................19 EDUCATIONAL DISADVANTAGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ......................................................21 Depth of disadvantage ................................................................................................................................23 Concentration of disadvantage................................................................................................................24 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................... 25 LITERATURE REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF PREVIOUS FINDINGS ............................................. 27 Overall PISA performance in reading .....................................................................................................27 Factors associated with performance ....................................................................................................29 SWEDISH SPEAKING MINORITY AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF FINLAND FOR FINNISH AND SWEDISH SPEAKING STUDENTS .......................................... 32 Swedish minority ...........................................................................................................................................32 Legal protection of Swedish minority ...................................................................................................34 5 Funding of education ..................................................................................................................................35 Capacity of municipalities to operate and finance education ......................................................36 Financing of schools .....................................................................................................................................37 Number of schools and students ............................................................................................................38 School sizes......................................................................................................................................................38 Teachers and their credentials ..................................................................................................................40 Class sizes .........................................................................................................................................................40 ANALYSES AND RESULTS .................................................................................................................41 Data ...................................................................................................................................................................41 Research question 1: Are factors affecting the reading performance of Finnish and Swedish students the same? ............................................................................................................42 Descriptive ................................................................................................................................................42 Reading performance of students.............................................................................................42 School performance in reading ..................................................................................................47 Interactions ...............................................................................................................................................55 Multivariate analysis ..............................................................................................................................56 Research question 2: Have factors affecting reading performance changed over time? ...58 Descriptive ................................................................................................................................................58 Student performance .....................................................................................................................58 Multivariate analysis ..............................................................................................................................60 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ................................................................................................................ 64 Excellence .........................................................................................................................................................64 Equity .................................................................................................................................................................66 Differences in factors affecting reading performance between Finnish and Swedish speaking students and schools ................................................................................................................67 Individual factors ...........................................................................................................................................67 Gender ........................................................................................................................................................67 Socioeconomic factors .........................................................................................................................67 Home primary language ......................................................................................................................68 Learning related factors ..............................................................................................................................68 Joy of reading...........................................................................................................................................68 Diversity of reading materials ............................................................................................................68 Learning strategies ................................................................................................................................69 School related factors ..................................................................................................................................69 Urban and rural location ......................................................................................................................69 Language status of municipalities ...................................................................................................69 School size .................................................................................................................................................69 Socioeconomic status of schools ......................................................................................................70 School expenditure ...............................................................................................................................70 Shortage of certified teachers ...........................................................................................................70 6 Implications from results for research question 1 .............................................................................70 Implications from results for research question 2 .............................................................................72 POLICY INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE EXCELLENCE AND EQUITY ..................................................74