Relative age impact on language and mathematics school achievement in primary education in Asturias county

Authors

Paula González-Vallinas

E.O.E. Avilés

Julián Librero

Navarrabiomed, Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra (CHN)-Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), IDISNA

Salvador Peiró

Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunidad Valenciana (FISABIO)

José Luis San Fabián

Universidad de Oviedo

DOI

10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2019-386-431

Abstract

The influence of selected variables on students’ academic performance have been taken into account when analyzing student´s results, both inside schools and in regional and national achievement tests. However, relative age is still a missing variable in many of these studies, which do not take into account that the same tests are applied to all students in class, being some of them up to almost a year younger than their classmates. This paper explores the impact of birth month on language and mathematics achievement in Grades 2, 4 and 6 in Primary Students Population in Asturias County among the academic years 2008-2013. First, bivariate analysis were carried out to assess the association between the final grades of the respective course and the student´s birth month, to determine grade retention percentage by month, and, finally, the relationship between educational reinforcement an relative age. The results show that students born in the last months of the year obtained a higher percentage of failures, grade retention and educational reinforcements in language and mathematics, as well as a lower probability of achieving outstanding. The results show that students born in the last months of the year obtained both a higher percentage of failures and educational reinforcements in language and mathematics. These results indicate that relative age should be a significant variable when evaluating school

Keywords

Relative age; birth month; academic achievement; primary education; educational assessment