El papel de los centros escolares en la adquisición de la competencia científica

The school effects are defined as the influence of educational centers on the pupils’ results. School effect size is the percentage of explained variance, which depends on school characteristics. This paper estimates the school size in Scientific Competence, which is evaluated by PISA program. The research establishes several objectives. It aims to estimate the magnitude school effects in the attitudes and capacities and to compare different types of school effects: A gross school effect, which doesn’t control context effects and a net school effect, which is adjusted by the school and families socioeconomic status. The sample consists of 17528 Spanish students, whose average age was 15.84 years (SD = 029), and 612 centers. Different multilevel models were developed: Students (level one) and schools (level two). The statistic applied was the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. The results show greater effects in the assessed capacities, over 15%. This percentage was reduced by the net school effect, because the socioeconomic status is a great predictor of students’ performance. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that schools in Spain are relevant in acquisition of Scientific Competence.