Territorial gaps in student achievement

The paper examines territorial gaps in achievement among Italian students and explores the various determinants at the individual, family, school and local level. The analysis relies on microdata from the INVALSI standardized tests that took place in 2018/19 and from questionnaires distributed to students and to a sample of school principals and teachers. The paper shows that, while in primary schools, children from the Centre and North and from the South of Italy perform similarly, marked gaps in disfavour of the latter area emerge in secondary school. Furthermore, in the South of Italy, the differences between schools and classes tend to be larger in primary and lower secondary school, and test scores are more dispersed in some subjects (also in terms of value added); these facts point to the existence of more pronounced inequalities in that macro-area. Families’ socio-economic conditions, which are on average less favourable in the South, cannot fully account for the differences in average test scores, and neither can the differences in the observable characteristics of pupils, schools, teachers and school principals. The characteristics of the local context where children grow up appear to play a role as well.