Assessing developing countries students' achievements in international educational testing by socio-economic status across regions, areas, and gender: a case of Vietnam Participating in PISA 2012 and 2015

Abstract

The literature shows the absence of international educational testing regimes of low-income developing countries. This paper addressed three neglected issues related to Vietnamese students' achievements: 1) the link between family background measured by socio-economic status (SES) and educational skills measured by PISA test scores; 2) the association between low and high-parental SES and students' skills; 3) the link between proficiency levels and SES gradient - the issue more important to the success of young adults. Findings presents distributions of SES gradient in academic skills across Vietnam, regions and gender in 2012 using a comparable measure between parental SES and the 2015 reiteration of test scores. A cross-areas variation identifies indirectly the differences in regional school resources that may lead to inequalities of opportunity. The SES gradient estimations not only relate to math, reading and science skills, but also to proficiency levels in the same cognitive domains at different years.