Examining educational inequalities: insights in the context of improved mathematics performance on national and international assessments at primary level in Ireland

Large-scale Assessments in Education

An IERI – International Educational Research Institute Journal

Table 2 Demographic features of the samples (%)

Variables	Categories	NAMER 2009	NAMER 2014	TIMSS 2011	TIMSS 2015
Gender (biological sex)	(0) Girl	48.3	53.6	49.5	47.3
Gender (biological sex)	(1) Boy	51.7	46.4	50.5	52.7
Country of birth	(0) Outside of Ireland	15.0	11.7	–	8.8
Country of birth	(1) Ireland	85.0	88.3	–	91.2
Language most often spoken at home^a	(0) Another language	5.4	6.9	15.8	12.5
Language most often spoken at home^a	(1) English/Irish	94.6	93.1	84.2	87.5
Number of books at home	(0) 100 or fewer	56.5	54.5	60.4	62.6
Number of books at home	(1) More than 100	43.5	45.5	39.6	37.4
Highest level of parent education	(0) No third-level education	–	38.5	41.2	30.8
Highest level of parent education	(1) Third-level education	–	61.5	58.8	69.2
School disadvantaged status	(0) Non-disadvantaged	78.2	79.2	80.9	81.9
School disadvantaged status	(1) Disadvantaged	21.8	20.8	19.1	18.1

Weighted percentages are presented. Missing cases were excluded
^a The questions asked about language spoken at home differed in each study. NAMER asked students to report whether or not they speak the language of the test (English/Irish) or a different language at home. TIMSS used a Likert scale asking students to report how often they speak the language of the test at home (Always, Almost Always, Sometimes, Never). The percentages presented above in the “Another language” category for TIMSS show the proportion of students reporting that they sometimes or never speak the language of the test at home