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This seminar is part of a series organised by Trento Center for Social Research and Methods research unit.
Next Seminar
24 March 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Guido Salza – University of Trento
The impact of school failure
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
There is a large debate around the practice of grade repetition as a remedial provision for poor school performance. Advocates of grade repetition claim that students having difficulties benefit from additional time in school and conceive grade repetition as a valid incentive to elicit effort and safeguard school quality. Opponents believe that, due to the attached negative stigma, grade repetition hampers pupils’ future schooling careers. In particular, the OECD and other international institutions call for a limitation of grade repetition and frame it as a waste of human capital at the system level. Focusing on the first year of high school in Italy, we address the following research questions: What is the causal impact of grade repetition on children’s future schooling careers? Is it beneficial, or does it increase the risk of further failures and school dropout? Is there evidence of heterogeneous effects across social groups? To this aim we exploit a unique longitudinal data archive linking administrative data on students’ school progression (provided by the Ministry of Education) with information on individual test scores and family background (provided by Invalsi). We estimate the causal effect of grade retention using matching strategies that consider both individual and contextual factors. Our findings reveal that grade repetition raises the probability of future failure, in terms of changes to less prestigious school tracks and dropout from the school system. Moreover, we find those who suffer most from school failure are children with low parental education and with a migrant background.
Guido Salza is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Trento in the Trento Center for Social Research Methods. He received his PhD in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research from the Universities of Milan and Turin. Between 2018 and 2019, he was a visiting student at the Observatoire Sociologique du Changement- SciencesPo, and at the Institut National d'Étude Démographique in Paris. His research interests lie in the broad area of educational inequalities, focusing on the determinants and effects of school failure. Guido is also particularly interested in putting together, handling, and interpreting large data sets.
Seminar Series
24 February 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Thomas Van De Putte – University of Trento
Interactional approaches to Holocaust memory
To get access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
24 March 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Guido Salza – University of Trento
The impact of school failure
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
21 April 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Valentina Marcheselli – University of Trento
Planetary analogs and remote sensing : an ethnography of cognition
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
12 May 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Gian Maria Campedelli – University of Trento
Combining complex networks and computational modeling in terrorism research
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it