Investing in Success? Family Educational Investment and PISA 2022 Math Achievement in Saudi Arabia

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Three
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT054 (Friday)

Abstract

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 encourages family engagement and co-financing in education, yet little is known about whether private spending increases student learning and academic achievement. Drawing on the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Saudi Arabia (N ≈ 6,900), this study estimates the association between three family investments through, out-of-pocket educational spending, early-childhood education (ECE) participation, and paid mathematics tutoring, and 15-year-olds’ mathematics achievement. We fit sequential regression models that use PISA’s ten plausible values and 80 balanced-replication weights. Controls include household income, gender, school type, and teaching quality. We expect investments to remain positively associated with achievement after controls, which provides new evidence for Saudi and regional education equity debates.

Author

• Mohammed Alsuwaylih, University of Pittsburgh