An International Investigation into the Relationship Between School Resources, Policy, and Math Performance Among Low Socioeconomic Status Students

This paper investigates gaps in math performance among students from high and low socioeconomic groups (SES). It does this through an examination of TIMSS math scores in 19 high income countries. On average, the math scores of students with indicators of high socioeconomic status are over 1 standard deviations above those with low scores, although the gap ranges from a high of 1.5 standard deviations in Taiwan, to a gap of less than .6 standard deviations in Hong Kong. We estimate education production functions for each country, and then examine the extent to which differences in math test scores within countries can be attributed to differences in classroomand school-level resources available to students from different SES backgrounds. We discuss the differences in patterns found among countries. Comparing low SES student test scores across countries, we also find that controlling for a wide range of student, family, school and classroom variables, the average performance of students with indicators of low SES background varies considerably between countries, with students in some countries scoring more than one standard deviation below those in others. The paper investigates the extent to which national level policies are associated with these differences.