Determinants of students’ proficiency: school features and personal characteristics vs SES in Kosovo

This study tests whether the school context and students’ personal characteristics improve male and female students’ proficiency irrespective of the effects of families’ socioeconomic inequalities. The object of the investigation is a country presenting relatively poor educational results: Kosovo. The study used the PISA 2022 dataset and focused on the math scores of female and male Kosovo students. The statistical analyses employed balanced repeated replication regression models by students’ gender. The results show that SES is a significant but not unmitigated determinant of the students’ proficiency. School features affect the students’ scores, while students’ personal features have an even larger impact on them. Girls’ math scores are equivalent to boys’ – which is uncommon – but are differently affected by the proficiency determinants. These findings suggest that school features and personal traits change students’ proficiency even when pupils, on average, come from a context negatively affecting their capabilities and present relatively low proficiency. Moreover, averagely lower socioeconomic conditions and the probable persistence of traditional gender roles are not synonymous with the gender gap in proficiency. Still, girls and boys are different in how they respond to proficiency factors, and therefore gender-specific policies are advisable to improve their proficiency.