Identifying the Factors Influencing the Scientific Competence in Andalusia: A Multilevel Study of the PISA 2012 Results

In this paper we investigate the factors that contribute to the performance ofAndalusian students in the scientific competence aspect of the PISA 2012 tests.The variables included refer to the students and schools. Multilevel analysisof the variables reveals that between 9.58% and 14.68% of the differences inthe performance are due to characteristics of the schools and that most of thevariance is explained by the characteristics of the students. The mostsignificant variables with respect to scientific competence, in a negativesense, are grade repetition, immigrant status and female gender; in a positivesense, they are family and sociocultural background and pre-primary schooling.In the light of these results, we discuss implications for education policyactions. This study shows the multilevel analysis model to be a very usefultool in education studies.