Cultural, social, and economic capital constructs in international assessments: an evaluation using exploratory structural equation modeling

Abstract

The article employs exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to evaluate constructs of economic, cultural, and social capital in international large-scale assessment (LSA) data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. ESEM integrates the theory-generating approach of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and theory-testing approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). It relaxes the zeroloading restriction in CFA, allowing items to load on different factors simultaneously, and it provides measurement invariance tests across countries not available in EFA. A main criticism of international LSA studies is the extended use of indicators poorly grounded in theory, like socioeconomic status, that prevent the study of mechanisms underlying associations with student outcomes. This article contributes to addressing this criticism by providing statistical criteria to evaluate the fit of well-defined sociological constructs with the empirical data.

Socio-economic gaps in subject interest: the mediating role of parental cognitive involvement

“…While international assessment studies present limitations for examining education inequalities, for example, in terms of cross-cultural comparability, theoretical implications, and causal interpretation of results (e.g., Caro et al 2014), these studies have provided valuable empirical evidence on the degree of inequalities, levels of inequalities (e.g., students /schools/education systems), mediating and moderating factors for inequalities, among other aspects that contribute to characterising education inequalities and understanding how inequalities arise and can be reduced.…”

System effectiveness and improvement: the importance of theory and context

“…How far do we want to rely on large-scale assessments to guide global and national policy making when both the supporters and the detractors of the international surveys concur that there is an absence of contextual consideration and a lack of theory in these research programs (Caro et al, 2014).…”

Assuming measurement invariance of background indicators in international comparative educational achievement studies: a challenge for the interpretation of achievement differences

“…However, because the HRL index drew on only five indicators (from the many available), it was very narrowly defined. We consider that the index would have particularly benefited from inclusion of the more reliable and valid indicators of social reproduction (Caro et al 2014). assumption of measurement invariance also merits consideration for two reasons.…”

“…assumption of measurement invariance also merits consideration for two reasons. First, because cross-national and comparative research in various disciplines challenges the validity of this assumption (Çetin 2010;Caro et al 2014;Hansson and Gustafsson 2013;Schulte et al 2013;Schulz 2005;Segeritz and Pant 2013). We assumed that at least some of the HRL indicators would show differential item functioning across the participating countries.…”