As the notoriety of the global PISA rankings has risen, countries around the world have explored how to improve the educational outcomes of their youngsters with renewed vigor.  Many of the interventions have revolved around things that the state can control, such as the wages of teachers or the approach of schools.

A new study from the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Croatia, approaches the elephant in the room – the parents.  It suggests that the school children attend has practically no influence on their progression into higher education, with parents providing the bulk of the influence on whether or not the child progresses academically.

The researchers tracked 1,000 pupils across a number of schools, and found that factors such as the school, its typical class size and property prices surrounding the school had little influence on whether the child wanted to move on to higher education.

Educational progress

In Croatia, children typically attend elementary school up to the age of 15, at which time they usually progress to secondary school, where they can take academic pathways that typically lead to university, or more vocational pathways, which don’t.

The researchers quizzed 1,000 students from 23 different elementary schools in Zagreb during the final two years of their elementary schooling.  They were quizzed on things such as their plans for higher education and their home life, including details about their parents.  This included things such as the aspirations their parents had for them, whether they had their own room, and whether they enjoyed school.

The researchers gathered data on both the grades of each pupil together with various features of the school and its environs, including the grade point average and the average house price in the area.  They performed detailed statistical analysis on this data to hone in on the factors that were most closely associated with the desire to continue in education.

This analysis suggests that none of the school-level factors had any influence on the decision to stay on into higher education, but various factors around the home life of the pupil had a big impact.  These included parental educational aspirations, maternal academic support and having space to study at home.

“The major finding arising from the present study is that none of the school level variables used in our analysis contributes to the explanation of pupils’ aspirations for higher education,” the researchers say. “In other words, pupils who have similar individual characteristics but attend different schools will likely hold similar aspirations for higher education.”