Project Lead: Alexandra Sandu

Project Overview :

The project explores the relationship between household and family characteristics, socioeconomic factors, and educational outcomes in Wales. By linking census and education data and using advanced geospatial techniques like Geographically Weighted Regression, the research seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of how various factors relate to and interact with pupils’ academic performance and attendance. Furthermore, it investigates how these relationships vary geographically across Wales at the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level, while also examining their direct association. This approach allows for a comprehensive analysis of the spatial variation in the factors influencing educational outcomes across different geographies in Wales.

Key Research Questions :

The study aims to address the following key research questions:

    1. To what extent are household socioeconomic markers like household employment status, income level, deprivation, eligibility for free school meals, SEN, ethnicity, and census deprivation measures related to pupil attainment and attendance? How do these relationships vary geographically across Wales at LSOA level?
    2. How are household composition factors and family dynamics associated with pupil performance? Does geographical location moderate this?
    3. Does area-based deprivation (based on Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation) correspond to pupil outcome differences between LSOAs?
    4. How do school characteristics relate to pupil attainment based on geography? Are there school effects driving differential pupil outcomes between regions?

Impact :

Through this project, I seek to provide insights that could inform targeted policies and resource allocation strategies that would address educational inequalities in Wales, ultimately demonstrating the value of geospatial analysis in educational research and policy-making.