Educational quality and deprivation: elasticity comparisons based on reading test scores, PISA 2000 and 2009

Eduardo L. G. Rios-Neto, Cedeplar, UFMG
Clarissa G. Rodrigues, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)

The goal of this paper is to analyze the link between average, deprivation and inequality of reading test scores from 38 countries evaluated by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), for the years 2000 and 2009. As proficiency data has statistical properties similar to income data, the primary contribution of the current study is to apply well-developed indices and techniques used in economic studies of poverty and inequality to some education data. One hypothesis is that the growth elasticity of educational deprivation reduction is greater than that typically found in economic studies. The reason for this is that the distribution of test scores tends to be more homogeneous as compared to income distributions, which tend to be skewed toward the left. Specifically, to measure deprivation in education we use the poverty metrics developed by Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (1983, 2010) including: 1) educational deprivation headcount index; 2) educational deprivation gap index; and 3) educational deprivation severity index. We define as ‘poor in education’ students who have neither acquired fundamental knowledge nor mastered the basic skills corresponding to their level of schooling. Our findings suggest that in countries with poor performance, increasing the average quality of the educational system would have a stronger impact on the reduction of low-skilled students than pure distributive policies toward educational attainment without an overall improvement in the educational system.