Development of mathematical and language literacy among Roma students

Abstract

The main goal of the paper is to analyze educational achievements of Roma students in the lower grades of compulsory education in Serbia, as well as to find out what is the influence of the socio-economic status and the quality of education on the educational achievements. The main source of data is the Grade 3 National Assessment Study which is implemented in Serbia during year 2004. The results show that there is big gap regarding to the educational achievements between Roma and non-Roma students (average score of Roma is more than 130 points behind of national average; about 50% of Roma students do not develop even the basic mathematical and language literacy; and the repeating rate is about 11%). Secondary analysis of the results shows that about 40% of this gap can be explained by the lower socio-economical status of Roma, and about 60% is determined by the lower level of education quality delivered to Roma students in Serbian schools. Moreover, based on the analysis, some aspects of the lower education quality are determined: Roma students are in higher extent than non-Roma students into the classes with the lowest education quality, teachers have lower expectations from Roma students and support them in less extent, curriculum is "shortened" and "simplified" for Roma, etc. The conclusion of the study is that without waiting for general improvement of living and social conditions in which Roma population live in Serbia, there is big space for improvement of education quality delivered to Roma students in Serbian schools

Uticaj socio-ekonomskog statusa učenika na obrazovna postignuća: direktni i indirektni uticaji

“…Može se postaviti pitanje u kojoj meri je viši nivo anksioznosti učenika koji imaju niži SES produkovan unutar škole kroz različite odnose u koje su deca uključena ili van škole kroz odnos prema obrazovanju, školovanju i životnim aspiracijama koje se zajednički konstruišu unutar porodice i unutar mreža socijalnih odnosa kojima pripadaju deca? Drugim rečima, u kojoj meri je viša školska anksioznost odraz socio-kulturnih procesa izvan škole (Boudon, 1974;Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990;Bruner, 1996), a u kojoj meri se generiše unutar škole (Baucal, 2006;Chiu & Xihua, 2007;Lee & Burkam, 2002;Monseur & Crahay, 2008;Willms, 2006Willms, , 2010. U zavisnosti od lokusa gde se generiše viši nivo školske anksioznosti učenika sa nižim SES zavisile bi buduće intervencije koje bi mogle da umanje njihovu međusobnu povezanost.…”

Equal Access to Education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Program in Serbia

“…The gap disappears in reading and decreases by 85% in mathematics when accounting for health, family background, and school and class fixed effects. In Serbia, using national assessments, Baucal (2006) reports that in the third grade of primary school Roma children are already lacking behind their Non Roma peers. The achievement gap decreases by 40% when the lower socio-economical status of Roma is taken into account.…”

“…First, an additional Non Roma teacher could have low expectations and could not put in effort. Baucal (2006) in fact shows that in Serbia school teachers have lower expectations from Roma and that they dedicate less time to them thus this mechanism could be especially important in our context. Second, the children could not respond to the program because of expected low returns to education.…”

“…Out of all children of primary school-age, 30% of Roma do not attend school whereas this is the case for only 1% of the overall population of primary school-age. Using data from the National Assessment Study conducted with third-grade students, Baucal (2006) finds that after the first three years of school Roma pupils lag 2.2-2.5 years behind the average student. Also, children from Roma ethnic minority performed worse on standardized tests than Non Roma children with the same socio-economic background.…”

“…Moreover, two interesting studies (Baucal, 2006;Kertesi & Kezdi, 2011) investigate the Roma/Non Roma gap and find large differences in educational outcomes between Roma and Non Roma. Both studies show that the achievement gap between the two groups decreases when accounting for the lower socio-economical status of Roma.…”