Explaining the substantial inter-domain and over-time correlations in student achievement: the importance of stable student attributes |
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| Authors: | Gary N Marks |
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| Institution: | Directorate of Government, Policy and Strategy, The Vice-Chancellery, Australian Catholic University, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Multi-domain and longitudinal studies of student achievement routinely find moderate to strong correlations across achievement domains and even stronger within-domain correlations over time. The purpose of this study is to examine the sources of these patterns analysing student achievement in 5 domains across Years 3, 5 and 7. The analysis is of longitudinal population data of over 22,000 students and utilizes fixed-effects models to incorporate stable general and domain-specific latent factors. These latent factors correspond to a general cognitive-ability-like factor and specific aptitudes in particular, or types of, subject areas. The preferred model incorporates both general and domain-specific latent factors with stronger effects for the general factor, although the domain-specific factors are particularly strong for spelling and numeracy. When taking into account general and domain-specific latent factors, the effects of student’s socioeconomic status (SES) and school SES are trivial. |
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| Keywords: | Achievement longitudinal studies educational career structural equation modelling fixed-effects models |
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