Schools' Agency Matters: How Agentic Differentiation Occurs Under Institutional Isomorphism?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Schools as Organizations Managing Change

Abstract

This study conducted a Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to reveal the dual processes of convergence and differentiation in school examination arrangements under the macro-examination system within the Confucian cultural circle based on 2022 PISA data.The results show that school examination arrangements exhibit "different while being similar" and can be categorized into four classes:"Teaching for Individual Differences""Screening and Selection""Monitoring and Improvement""Comprehensive Evaluation".In terms of the influence mechanisms,firstly,the impacts of assessment,peer,and social pressure vary in school examination arrangements,the greater the assessment pressure, the more inclined schools are to adopt "Screening and Selection" examinations.Secondly,schools with different exam arrangements vary in educational outcomes.Thirdly,school running level and autonomy play a negative moderating role between assessment pressure and school examination arrangements.

Authors

• Qingqing Li, Beijing Normal University

• Qian Zhao, Beijing Normal University