Analysing the Policy Effects of the Education Welfare Priority Support Project: Focusing on Differences in School Life and Learning, Psychological Characteristics, and Academic Achievement

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyse the policy effects of the Education Welfare Priority Support Project (EWPS), which has been in full operation since 2006, and the effects of the number of years of the survey, not only on academic achievement, but also on school life, regular school assessment, learning and psychological characteristics. To do so, we used data from the first wave of the Seoul Longitudinal Study of Education (waves 1-9, 2010-2018), focusing on high school students in that period, and examined changes over the course of their first to third years, as well as changes between waves 1-9 (waves 1-3, waves 4-6, and waves 7-9). The results of the analysis showed that overall, students' school life, regular school assessment, learning and psychological characteristics, career paths, and academic achievement changed positively as the survey period progressed. Although there was no direct effect on academic achievement, the difference between students in the priority schools and students in the general schools decreased somewhat as they progressed to higher grades. The results show that the effectiveness of educational policies such as the EWPS, which aims to provide comprehensive support for the potential growth of students from educationally disadvantaged groups, is limited to evaluating them at a specific point in time and in a short period of time, and that long-term observation and continuous management of the policy are necessary.