Unlocking Socioeconomic Insights Through Schools’ Geolocation

Abstract: The Socioeconomic Status (SES) of schools is arguably the most widely used contextual variable in educational research. Traditional approaches for gathering school SES information have frequently relied upon numerous items – some of which are open-ended – imposing a significant burden on both informants and researchers. To address this concern, this article proposes an efficient approach to leveraging socioeconomic information by employing a geolocation-based methodology. Through the examination of a Spanish PISA 2018 dataset, we illustrate that utilizing schools’ geolocation proves to be a time-efficient mechanism for gathering school-level socioeconomic information. This article delves into the methodological and practical implications arising from these findings.