Socially Disadvantaged Students in Socially Disadvantaged Schools: Double Jeopardy in Mathematics Achievement in the G8 Countries

Using the G8 countries' (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States) samples from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this study aimed to explore the phenomenon of double jeopardy in mathematics achievement for socially disadvantaged students. Double jeopardy is a situation of dual penalties where coming from low socioeconomic status (SES) families and attending low SES schools results in concurrent penalties at both the student level and school level in mathematics achievement. This study examined the phenomenon of double jeopardy in the G8 countries across four school locations: rural regions, towns, cities, and metropolitan areas. This study also examined four separate definitions of socioeconomic status in order to determine the effectiveness of each definition. The four definitions corresponded to four SES measures utilized in this study: father's SES, mother's SES, family occupation SES, and combined family SES. Multilevel analysis with students nested within schools indicated that significant double jeopardy effects varied according to SES measure, school location, and country. However, the majority of the double jeopardy effects across all the variables were large in magnitude. Furthermore, the combined family SES and the metropolitan school location were often the most sensitive SES measure and school location, respectively, to double jeopardy in the G8 countries. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]