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In questo volume sono presentati i principali risultati italiani dell’indagine OCSE PISA 2022 (Programme for International Student Assessment), il primo ciclo di PISA da quando la pandemia COVID-19 ha gravemente danneggiato l’istruzione in tutto il mondo: un’indagine triennale condotta su studenti quindicenni di tutto il mondo che rileva in che misura abbiano acquisito conoscenze e competenze fondamentali per partecipare pienamente alla vita sociale ed economica.

INVALSI, as a part of the National System of Evaluation of the Education and Training System (SNV), conducts periodic and systematic tests on students’ knowledge and skills. INVALSI makes useful databases available for studying and analysing the Italian education system. On the occasion of the VI Seminar “INVALSI data: a tool for teaching and scientific research” (November 2021), the potential of their use became evident: This volume collects some papers presented there.

PIRLS è uno studio internazionale diretto dal TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center della IEA presso il Boston College, in stretta collaborazione con gli uffici IEA di Amsterdam e Amburgo. L’indagine IEA PIRLS nel 2021 è giunta al quinto ciclo di realizzazione e ha coinvolto più di 50 Paesi in tutto il mondo. PIRLS è uno studio basato su un solido quadro di riferimento e fornisce dati comparabili a livello internazionale sulle abilità di lettura di bambine/i al quarto anno di scuola primaria.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between parental involvement and student mathematics achievement using a structural equa¬tion modeling approach. Data from a representative sample of fourth-grade students, and their parents, from 14 different European countries participating in TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) were analyzed. The model was successful in explaining the TIMSS scores in mathematics: the predicted model showed a good fit to the data, with 31% of the variance explained. The results showed that SES contributed to the prediction of performance in mathematics. However, the results showed also the positive and signifi¬cant effects of parental involvement factors - especially parental expectations for their children’s academic attainment - mediating the relationship between SES and TIMSS math achievement. Thus, increasing parental par¬ticipation could be a useful intervention to reduce SES-related differences in performance.

Il volume ha lo scopo di promuovere il valore scientifico dei dati rilevati dall’indagine internazionale IEA TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) svoltasi nel 2019, che monitora l’efficacia educativa in Matematica e Scienze nella quarta primaria (grado 4) e nella terza secondaria di primo grado (grado 8). Nel testo vengono descritti i principali risultati dell’Italia, confrontandoli con i risultati ottenuti dagli altri Paesi, descrivendo l’andamento a livello nazionale e per area geografica, e fornendo un confronto con le precedenti indagini IEA (analisi dei trend).

This volume hosts four research papers, presented within the III Seminar “INVALSI data: a research tool (Bari from 26 to 28 October 2018). Thanks to the INVALSI data, the authors conducted interesting in depth analysis of various aspects relating to the Italian education system. The data produced are a valuable source of information based on which it is possible not only to plan improvement interventions in the didactic field, but also to undertake stimulating paths of educational research.

Nei giorni 17 e 18 novembre 2017 si è tenuta a Firenze la seconda edizione del Seminario “I dati INVALSI: uno strumento per la ricerca”. Il Servizio Statistico dell’INVALSI ha deciso di raccogliere i numerosi contributi di ricerca presentati in questa occasione in specifici testi tematici, che costituiscono degli approfondimenti su come i dati INVALSI possano contribuire ad approfondire l’interpretazione del mondo scolastico, nelle sue diverse sfaccettature.

This paper aims at expanding some findings of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016), analysing the associations between European immigrant and non-immigrant students’ civic knowledge, perceptions of good citizenship, and expected civic engagement (students’ expected participation in legal/illegal activities and in electoral/political participation) using structural equation modelling. Descriptive analyses are also presented to investigate the extent to which immigrant students’ perceptions of different aspects of citizenship and their expected civic engagement differ from their native-born counterparts. Result show that immigrant adolescents who took part in the survey seem to prefer a type of engagement that does not trust the traditional methods related to electoral participation, but is willing to be committed to other forms of participation, either in political or legal activities, or even in illegal protests. The structural equation model highlighted no difference in the relation between immigrant and non-immigrant students’ perceptions of citizenship and their civic engagement, stressing the relevance that formal education plays in fostering students’ civic engagement during adulthood.

Programme for International Student Assessment - PISA è un’indagine internazionale promossa dall’Organizzazione per la Cooperazione e lo Sviluppo Economico (OCSE) con periodicità triennale per accertare le competenze dei quindicenni scolarizzati. Il volume raccoglie saggi di studiosi di differenti ambiti disciplinari e provenienti da contesti di lavoro diversi (scuola, università, ricerca). I contributi sono stati selezionati sulla base di una chiamata pubblica e sottoposti a un processo di revisione da parte di esperti qualificati.

Iea international comparative studies traditionally include the use of background questionnaires. Data collected through those questionnaires are central to both international reports and secondary analyses, as they allow to better contextualize student results in the cognitive tests and help identify the school and classroom factors that have a direct or indirect impact on student performance. A systematic review of the literature on Pirls, Timss, and Iccs was conducted upstream, to identify those school, teacher, and classroom factors which are potentially useful predictors of student performance. Such a review highlighted that it is exceedingly difficult to draw causal inferences, as well as to find strong associations between process-related school variables and student achievement. The type of constructs and variables used in the questionnaire development, the way these constructs and variables are operationally defined, the self-reported nature of the collected data, and the kind of data analyses carried out all contribute to explain that difficulty. In order to verify whether the impact of specific school and teacher characteristics varies as a function of the socioeconomic status of students at the school level, a hierarchical multilevel analysis of Timss 2011 data was conducted. Data from the European countries particvipating in the survey were included in the analyses.The analysis measured what proportion of the variance was actually explained by the factors included in the model and whether the impact of the same factors varies in relation to the school socioeconomic background. A separate analysis was conducted for each considered country and the same multi-level regression model was used first on the schools as a whole, and then treating schools with high and low socioeconomic backgrounds (based on average student Ses at school level) as two distinct groups. In most countries, results showed the influence of socioeconomic status at school level for all three groups of schools - all schools, high Ses schools, and low Ses schools. Furthermore, results showed that school and teacher characteristics have different impacts across countries and in relation to school socioeconomic backgrounds.

In the present study, the relationship between student characteristics and mathematics performance was evaluated using a structural equation modeling approach. Italian students participated at Timss 2011 field test (N = 1264; 52% female, mean age: 13 years and 10 months ± 6 months) completed a questionnaire including measures of socio-economic and cultural background, general reasoning ability and self-concept in mathematics and the Timss mathematics achievement test. A mediation structural equation model assessed the direct and indirect effects of the general reasoning ability test and socio-economic and cultural background through the mediation of selfconcept in mathematics. The results showed that all measures were significantly associated with mathematics achievement test, furthermore selfconcept partially mediated the effects of socio-economic status and general reasoning ability.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of students’ attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics self-concept and socio-economic status on their performance in Timss mathematics test. It also examined the relevance of the different schools’ characteristics for the prediction of students’ performance. We analyzed data related to 3997 Italian students of 170 schools, a representative sample of students in eight grade school, that participated to the Timss 2007. A multilevel analysis was conducted to distinguish how much of the variability of performance was due to student characteristics and/or to characteristics of schools and of the territorial context in which schools are located. The results showed that self-concept in mathematics helps to explain the differences in performance in mathematics. Further, the socio-economic status, at school level, contributed to the prediction of the performance in mathematics. Furthermore, in the Italian context, significant differences in performance depending on geographic area were evidenced.