Percentage population plots : a proposition for a new strategy for data analysis in comparative education.

Abstract

One of the issues facing educational research workers today is the determination of the similarities and differences between countries and cultures in the factors that influence educational outcomes. The author of this article proposes a new approach to this problem. Usually when countries are compared, the complete student samples are taken into consideration. At the same time, there are differences between countries with regard to their educational policies towards high or low achieving students as well as the effects of different student characteristics on the educational outcomes for those groups. Population Percentage Plots propose a new way of comparing the effects across the whole range of performance of groups of students. [Author abstract]