Inconsistency in student achievement across subject domains: examination of associations with students’ gender, socioeconomic status, and teachers’ track recommendations

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of track recommendation, SES, prior achievement, and achievement inconsistency.

	N	M	SD	Min.	Max.
Achievement inconsistency	4241	0.61	0.52	0.00	4.54
SES	4242	0.31	0.91	−2.66	3.65
Prior achievement
Reading comprehension test	4245	64.36	20.60	−27	147
Mathematics test	4243	114.53	14.20	21	168
Track recommendation	4242	4.66	1.26	1	6

Table 2. Correlations between achievement inconsistency, SES, gender, prior achievement, and track recommendation.

	1	2	3	4	5
1. Achievement inconsistency
2. Gender (0 = boys)	.00
3. SES	-.06***	-.03
4. Reading comprehension test	.04**	.06***	.25***
5. Mathematics test	-.09***	-.11***	.23***	.68***
6. Track recommendation	-.10***	-.03	.29***	.77***	.81***

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 3. Standardised estimates of multilevel models predicting track recommendations with prior achievement, SES, gender, and achievement inconsistency (groups).

	Model 0: Empty		Model 1: Prior achievement		Model 2: + SES + Gender		Model 3a: + Achievement inconsistency		Model 4: + Interaction effects		Model 5: + Random slopes
	$b$*	SEb	$b$*	SEb	$b$*	SEb	$b$*	SEb	$b$*	SEb	$b$*	SEb
Fixed effects
Intercept	.07	.05	.22***	.02	.23***	.02	.24***	.02	.23***	.02	.23***	.02
Prior achievement
Reading comprehension test			.34***	.01	.33***	.01	.35***	.01	.35***	.01	.36***	.01
Mathematics test			.48***	.01	.48***	.01	.47***	.01	.47***	.01	.47***	.01
Students’ background characteristics
Gender (girls)					-.02	.01	-.01	.01	-.01	.01	-.02	.01
SES					.03***	.01	.03***	.01	.03***	.01	.03***	.01
Achievement inconsistency							-.07***	.01	-.06***	.01	-.06***	.01
Interaction effects
Achievement inconsistency * Gender									-.01	.01	-.02	.01
Achievement inconsistency * SES									-.03***	.01	-.02**	.01
Achievement inconsistency groups (ref group = achievement inconsistency < 1 SD)
1–2 SD difference
Mathematics > reading comprehension
Reading comprehension > mathematics
2 or more SD difference
Mathematics > reading comprehension
Reading comprehension > mathematics
Random effects
Slopes prior achievement
Reading comprehension test											.01**	.00
Mathematics test											.01***	.00
Slope achievement inconsistency											.00	.00
Variance
School level	.25***	.04	.03***	.01	.03***	.01	.03***	.01	.03***	.01	.02***	.00
Student level	.60***	.01	.17***	.00	.17***	.00	.17***	.00	.16***	.00	.15***	.00
R^2			.759		.764		.765		.768		.791
Model fit
– 2LL	10133.85		4714.58		4685.71		4585.84		4558.69		4423.40
Number of schools	101		101		101		101		101		101
Number of students	4242		4235		4229		4229		4229		4229

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Figure 1. Multilevel Regression Lines for the Effect of Students’ achievement inconsistency on track recommendations for students with different SES backgrounds.