Replication Data for: Associations between high achievement in reading and school climate by socioeconomic levels in Medellin, Colombia

Abstract

Students from low Socioeconomic Status (SES) backgrounds tend to achieve lower academic performance compared to their peers from high SES backgrounds. This phenomenon is important because it could reproduce vulnerability conditions for students from low SES. Given the above, some scholars have directed their attention towards understanding factors associated with student ability to achieve high academic results despite facing significant adversities related to their socioeconomic status (i.e., academic resilience). Research on academic resilience has a potential to guide educational policies aimed at improving the academic achievement of socioeconomically vulnerable students and bridging the academic gaps between vulnerable and privileged students. However, this potential has been constrained because these studies typically only analyze vulnerable students. Our research extends this literature by examining the associations between high achievement in reading and four elements of school climate (academic expectations, school safety and respect, participation, and communication). Likewise, we investigated whether student SES moderated the relationships between high achievement in reading and school climate. To accomplish these objectives, we employed a representative sample of students from Medellín, Colombia, and estimated multilevel logistic regressions and heterogeneous choice models. The results indicated that high academic achievement is associated with school safety, respect, and communication. Moreover, we did not find evidence of statistically significant differences in these associations across different SES levels.