Replication Data for: Examining the associations between high achievement in reading and school climate: evidence from five South American countries

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have shown that there are resilient students (i.e., students that overcome adversities related with their low Socio-Economic Status (SES) by attaining high academic achievement) around the world. The existence of resilient students has increased interest in understanding the factors that explain the capacity of students from low SES background to attain high academic achievement (i.e., academic resilience). However, upon reviewing this literature, I observed that few studies have comparatively investigated the associations between academic resilience in reading and school climate characteristics such as, teaching practices, school discipline, teacher support, and educational resources. Additionally, I found that not many studies have researched whether student SES moderates the associations between high achievement in reading and these school climate characteristics. This paper contributes to fill these two gaps by estimating associations between high achievement in reading and the aforementioned school climate characteristics. Moreover, it examines whether student SES moderates these associations. To fill these two gaps, this research used logit models and heterogeneous choice models using representative samples of students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of 2018. The results show that high achievement in reading is positively associated with certain teaching practices such as adapting instruction to students’ needs and perceived teacher enthusiasm during the instruction. Conversely, it is negatively associated with teacher feedback and teacher directed instruction. Furthermore, the findings indicate that high achievement in reading is negatively associated with the scarcity and low quality of educational material. Interestingly, the results show that student SES does not moderate these associations. In conclusion, these findings indicate that interventions targeting these areas of school climate may help to increase students’ probability to attain high achievement in reading, regardless of their SES. Likewise, these results suggest that if these interventions are focused in low SES schools, they may contribute to bridge the gap in reading skills between students from low and middle-high socioeconomic backgrounds.