La performance in matematica degli studenti del V anno di scuola secondaria di secondo grado: un’analisi multilivello sui dati dell’anno scolastico 2018-2019

The performance in mathematics of students in the fifth year of upper secondary school : a multilevel analysis on the data of the school year 2018-2019 · The main aim of this paper was the analysis of the Italian students’ Mathematics achievements at the end of upper secondary school. By applying a hierarchical linear model to a sample of 36.589 thirteenth-graders nested within 990 schools who participated in the INVALSI tests in 2019, it was possible to find out the determinants of pupils’ performance both at individual and at class and school level. The results revealed that a three-level Random Slope Model with cross-level interactions between covariates was the best-fitting model. It assumes that the effects of gender, average class ESCS (Economic, Social and Cultural Status) and oral assessment in Mathematics on students’ score vary from class to class and from school to school, meaning that the influence of said factors on students’ performance depends on the specific group to which they belong. All the other independent variables which contribute to pupils’ score are assumed to have the same effect independently of the specific class or school examined. Finally, the results from the investigation of variance decomposition showed that the proportion of the total variation in Mathematics achievement explained by school and class-level covariates, which represent the context effects, is larger than the amount of variability accounted for by individual characteristics.