International Longitudinal Study of Skills Development in Cities

International Longitudinal Study of

Skills Development in Cities

Koji Miyamoto and Maria Huerta, OECD

Report Launching Seminar

Paris, 10 March 2015

• Why do we need an international longitudinal study on skills development?

• How will the study be conducted?

• What are the policy and research questions the study will address?

2

Outline

Why do we need an international longitudinal study on social and emotional skills development?

•3

Why we need this study?

•4

Rationale and Background

• Social and emotional skills

• Longitudinal

• International

• Cities

ESP Phase 1

•5

Rationale and Background

Key messages:

• Social and emotional skills are powerful drivers of well-being and social progress.

• Children can learn some of these skills which would help them achieve long-term goals, work better with others and manage their emotions.

• While international research has come up with some measures that can help to improve teaching and parenting practices, they can be better conceptualised and validated.

We need better micro-data and evidence to inform policy-makers, teachers and parents which skills to invest in, when and how.

This requires a collection of

– Better and diverse measures of ‘social and emotional skills’ known to shape individual’s success in education, labour market and social outcomes.

– Diverse measures of learning contexts (family, school and community) that drives skill formation.

– Diverse measures of socioeconomic outcomes that matter.

– Repeated measures of cognitive, social and emotional skills & learning contexts across individual’s childhood-adolescence to understand how skills develop over time.

•6

Why launch a new data collection?

How will the study be conducted?

•7

6

Childhood

Early- Adolescence

Mid-Adolescence

Skill

Contexts

Late-Adolescence

Early- Adulthood

Age 10 15 20 23

Skill Skill Skill Skill

Contexts Contexts Contexts

Study characteristics

Outcomes Outcomes Outcomes Outcomes Outcomes

9

Study characteristics

What is the structure?

Target cohorts Children in Grades 1 and 7

Cycle Annual data collection from 2019 -

Respondents School (students & teachers) and home (parents)

Coverage Major cities

Sampling Random selection of schools

Duration Minimum 3 years and ideally until early adulthood

10

Study characteristics

What will be measured?

• Skills:

Extraversion (NOR) Sociability (NZL)

Self-esteem (US, UK, CAN, SWI) Self-confidence (NOR)

Persistence (UK) Perseverance (NZL) Responsibility (KOR, NZL) Locus of control (US, UK, KOR)

11

Study characteristics

What will be measured?

• Skills Focus on social and emotional skills

• Learning contexts School, family and community learning contexts

Home

School Community

Classroom

12

Study characteristics

What will be measured? • Skills Focus on social and emotional skills

• Learning contexts School, family and community learning contexts

• Learning outcomes Education, labour market and social outcomes

•13

2015-17

Feasibility study:

Socio-emotional skills instrument

2017-19

Pilot study and Field trials

2019-

Main data collection

Developmental work

14

Feasibility study

Why do we need a feasibility study?

Need to ensure the chosen social and emotional skills instruments:

• cover key social and emotional constructs,

• are reliable and valid measures of such skills, and

• ensure robustness across ages, cultures and linguistic boundaries.

Content:

• Test instruments for Grades 1-12

• Use multiple assessment methods: self-reports; teacher and parents reports; objective assessments, behavioural tasks; and administrative data.

Canada (Ottawa)

Korea (Seoul)

Japan (Tokyo-Suginami)

Cities under discussion

Russia (Moscow)

Brazil (tbd)

Mexico (tbd)

Norway (Oslo)

Argentina (Buenos Aires)

UK** (tbd)

Colombia (Bogota)

What are the policy and research questions the study will address?

•16

17

Research questions

Distribution of skills

• How prepared children are in terms of socio-emotional skills?

• How unequal are skills across groups?

• Do initial skill gaps grow over time?

• Are skill differences between socio-economic groups similar across cities?

18

Research questions

Learning environments that shape skills

•Do learning contexts influence skill development?

•Which learning contexts play a particularly important role for children's skill development?

•How malleable are social and emotional skills during the school years?

19

Research questions

Skills that drive life outcomes

•Do socio-emotional skills influence subsequent outcomes ….

education, health and other social outcomes?

20

Anticipated outputs

•Feasibility Study:

– Better conceptualise social and emotional skills

– Improve the validity of measurement instruments

– Set international standards for social and emotional skills measurement of school-aged children

•Main Study:

–Annual policy reports that describe: (a) distribution of skills, (b) learning environments that shape skills, (c) skills that drive children’s outcomes

–International reports with comparative analysis of skill formation

–Longitudinal datasets regularly updated

• We need better micro-data and evidence to inform policy-makers, teachers and parents which skills to invest in, when and how.

• The OECD can have a leadership role in strengthening the evidence base on social and emotional skills.

21

Summing up …

THANK YOU!

•22

For more information about our work:

http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/educationandsocialprogress.htm