Height and weight as predictors of achievement, grade repetition and dropout in rural Peru Santiago Cueto Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE)
Dec 29, 2015
Height and weight as predictors of achievement, grade repetition and
dropout in rural Peru
Santiago CuetoGroup for the Analysis of Development
(GRADE)
Longitudinal Design
1998 1999 2000 2001
Ideal progress 4th grade5th
grade6th grade
1st grade high school
Data collected
Baseline (Achievement
and Anthropometry)
NoAchievemen
tGrade in school
Number of students by grades and
situation in 2001
Primary school High
school Total %
Fourth grade
Fifth grade
Sixth grade
First grade
Attending 4 57 147 250 458 80%
Dropout 60 42 16 118 20%
Total 64 99 163 250 576 100%
Situation of dropouts from 2000 to 2001
Situation Females Males
Returned to school 7% 3%
Maintained its condition
57% 33%
Total 64% 36%
n=86
Age, height, weight of students in 1998 by
situation in 2001
Attending Retained Dropouts
M SD M SD M SD
Height for age -2.2a 1.0 -2.2a 0.9 -2.3a 1.0
Student's age 11.4a 1.7 11.0a 1.5 13.1b 2.1
Weight for age -1.4a 0.8 -1.4a 0.7 -1.3a 0.8
Body mass index 17.1a 1.7 16.8a 1.4 18.5b 2.3
*Means with different superscripts in each group indicate differences are significant (p<0.05).
Other Characteristics of the students according to their condition in 2001
Attending Retained Dropouts
M SD M SD M SD
Proportion of students who attended preschool 0.68a 0.47 0.68a 0.47 0.63ª 0.49
Student’s proficiency in Spanish (3 point scale) 2.45a 0.66 2.13b 0.75 2.16b 0.73
Number of siblings 2.69a 1.34 2.78a 1.43 2.99ª 1.63
Number of education books in the house (school texts, dictionaries, tales) 4.26a 1.71 3.96ª 1.62 3.51b 1.71
Proportion of the students who live with one or two parents 0.94a 0.25 0.86b 0.35 0.59c 0.49
Father’s education 4.97a 3.35 4.51ª 3.09 3.82b 2.86
Mother’s education 2.73a 3.44 2.57ª 2.79 1.65b 2.04
Mother uses Spanish to communicate with her child (proportion) 0.64a 0.48 0.45b 0.5 0.38b 0.49
Number of rooms in the house (without bathroom, kitchen, garage) 2.61a 1.55 2.32a 1.45 1.91b 1.23
Time from the house to school (in minutes) 22.84a 22.91 28.68a 32.76 34.66ª 41.06
*Means with different superscripts in each group indicate differences are significant (p<0.05).
Scores in Arithmetic test – common items
(maximum possible score: 13 points)
Grade in 2001
Arithmetic test (1998)
Arithmetic test (2000)
Variation (2000-1998)
Fourth and Fifth graders
Mean 4.3 c 7.5 b 3.2Standard deviation
2.5 2.8
N 48 48
Sixth graders
Mean 5.0 c 8.4 b 3.5Standard deviation
2.3 2.7
N 129 129
High schoolFirst graders
Mean 7.2 a 10.2 a 3.0Standard deviation
2.7 2.4
N 222 222
Dropouts
Mean 6.2 b 7.9 b 1.6Standard deviation
2.5 3.3
N 69 69
*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.
Reading comprehension – common items (maximum possible score: 40 points)
Grade in 2001
Reading
comprehension test (1998)
Reading comprehension
test (2000)
Variation (200-1998)
Fourth and Fifth
graders
Mean 12.3 b 19.7 c 7.4Standard
deviation6.3 6.2
N 59 59
Sixth graders
Mean 13.5 b 23.4 b 9.9Standard
deviation5.7 5.1
N 143 143
High schoolFirst graders
Mean 19.4 a 26.8 a 7.3Standard
deviation6.2 5.6
N 239 239
Dropouts
Mean 13.9 b 21.0 b,c 7.1Standard
deviation6.5 8.0
N 78 78
*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.
Results in Reading comprehension and arithmetic tests in 2000 – additional items (maximum possible score: 17 and 29 points respectively)
Grade in 2001 Reading
comprehension*Arithmetic*
Fourth and Fifth graders
Mean 5.5 ª 4.3 b Standard deviation 2.8 4.3
N 61 60
Sixth gradersMean 5.3 ª 5.4 b
Standard deviation 3.0 4.0
N 144 146
High schoolFirst graders
Mean 6.0 a 7.8 a
Standard deviation 3.1 4.9
N 248 247
DropoutsMean 5.9 ª 5.9 b
Standard deviation 3.8 5.8
N 80 85
*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.
Correlation among nutrition variables and achievement
** Correlation significant at 1%, * at 5% (2 tailed)
Reading Comprehension (common items) test 1998 0.08 0.08 -0.06N 502 503 502Reading Comprehension (common items) test 2000 0.10 * 0.05 -0.12 *N 481 482 480Arithmetic test 1998 (common items) 0.04 0.09 0.15 **N 452 453 452Arithmetic test 2000 (common items) 0.12 * 0.09 -0.07N 481 482 480Reading comprehension (additional items) test 2000 0.15 ** 0.09 -0.08N 476 477 475Arithmetic test 2000 (aditional items) 0.09 * 0.06 -0.04N 481 482 480
Height for age Weight for age Body mass index
Hierarchical Linear Model analysis for arithmetic and reading comprehension achievement 1998 and 2000 (common items)
Reading comprehension
1998
Reading Comprehension
2000
Arithmetic 1998
Arithmetic 2000
Level 1Student's age in 1998 (in years) -1.136 -0.849 1.203 -0.451(Standard error) (1.847) (1.477) (0.823) (0.695)
Student's age in 1998 - squared (in years) 0.045 0.017 -0.042 0.013(Standard error) (0.077) (0.068) (0.034) (0.029)
Gender (male vs female) 1.494 ** 0.039 0.406 0.204(Standard error) (0.551) (0.445) (0.252) (0.213)
Proficiency in spanish (1 bad, 2 regular, 3 good) 2.158 ** 0.534 0.599 ** 0.438 *(Standard error) (0.499) (0.408) (0.227) (0.193)
Preschool education (Yes vs No) 0.029 0.682 0.374 0.173(Standard error) (0.646) (0.517) (0.292) (0.247)
Family size -0.108 -0.071 -0.003 -0.057(Standard error) (0.155) (0.124) (0.069) (0.058)
Antropometry - Height for age (Z score) 0.215 -0.276 0.059 0.041(Standard error) (0.316) (0.253) (0.145) (0.122)
Body mass Index -0.134 -0.017 0.032 -0.009(Standard error) (0.189) (0.151) (0.083) (0.070)
Time from home to school (Intervals of 15 minutes) -0.537 * 0.026 0.067 -0.058(Standard error) (0.239) (0.192) (0.089) (0.075)
Language used by the mother to comunicate with her child (Spanish vs other) 1.494 * 0.405 0.990 ** 0.110(Standard error) (0.625) (0.503) (0.282) (0.242)
Mother educational level (0 None, 1 Primary, 2 Secondary, y 3 Higher education ) 0.082 0.570 0.313 0.037(Standard error) (0.490) (0.392) (0.223) (0.189)
Reading comprehension score in 1998 0.421 **(Standard error) (0.039)
Arithmetic score in 1998 0.473 **(Standard error) (0.044)
Level 2: School and teacher variablesIntercept Bo 10.950 ** 14.078 ** 5.014 ** 6.591 **(Standard error) (1.605) (2.386) (0.581) (1.493)
Type of school (Full grade vs multigrade ) 3.538 + 0.985 0.608 1.081(Standard error) (1.755) (1.239) (0.610) (0.636)
Teachers with university formation (mean by school) 7.255 + 2.810 *(Standard error) (3.399) (1.234)
Reading comprehension score in 1998 (mean by school) 0.575 **(Standard error) (0.168)
Arithmetic score in 1998 (mean by school) 0.288(Standard error) (0.243)
Sample of students 427 427 397 397Sample of schools 16 16 16 16Level 1 - Variance 30.35 ** 19.42 ** 5.53 ** 3.92 **Level 2 - Variance 9.08 ** 4.04 ** 0.94 ** 1.29 **
Proportion of variance between schools 0.23 0.17 0.15 0.25
** p<0.01, * p< 0.05, + p<0.10
CoefficientOdds Ratio
CoefficientOdds Ratio
Level 1: Student and family variablesStudent's age in 1998 (in years) -0.042 0.959 0.605 ** 1.831(Standard error) (0.097) (0.125)Gender (Male vs Female) 0.181 1.199 -0.628 + 0.534(Standard error) (0.277) (0.369)Preschool education -0.088 0.916 0.326 1.385(Standard error) (0.338) (0.436)Proficiency in spanish (1 bad, 2 regular, 3 good) 0.329 1.390 -0.076 0.927(Standard error) (0.257) (0.320)Language used by the mother to comunicate with her child (Spanish vs other) 0.500 + 1.648 -0.320 0.726(Standard error) (0.296) (0.411)Antropometry - Height for age (Z score) -0.238 0.788 0.379 + 1.460(Standard error) (0.159) 1.173 (0.203)Body mass index 0.027 1.028 0.127 1.135(Standard error) (0.091) 1.095 (0.099)The student lives with at least one of his parents (yes vs no) 0.919 2.506 -1.384 ** 0.251(Standard error) (0.718) (0.421)Arithmetic test 1998 (standarized score) 0.793 ** 2.211 -0.119 0.888(Standard error) (0.193) (0.217)Comprenhension test 1998 (standarized score) 1.233 ** 3.432 0.183 1.201(Standard error) (0.224) (0.246)Level 2: School and teacher variablesIntercept Bo -4.732 * 0.009 -1.743 ** 0.175(Standard error) (2.040) (0.492)Type of school (Full grade vs multigrade) 1.070 + 2.916 -0.971 0.379(Standard error) (0.563) (0.688)There is a high school close to the school (yes vs -0.431 0.650 0.335(Standard error) (0.638) (0.741)Reading comprehension in 1998 (mean score by school) 0.084 1.087 -0.108 0.898(Standard error) (0.059) (0.074)
Deviance 664.22 456.83Level 2 - Variance 0.26 * 0.59 **
** p<0.01, * p<0.05, + p<0.10
DropoutHigh school