Understanding subject choices from report card grades: gender and educational level disparities

ABSTRACT

Pupils’ subject choices at the level of secondary education critically determine the tertiary fields of study that they can pursue. This study used multinomial logistic regression models to investigate the extent to which the final report card grades of ninth-grade students predicted their choices of subject combinations at the senior general secondary education (N = 771) and pre-university education (N = 494) levels. Final report card grades determined 55.4% to 64.1% of the pupils’ choices. The most relevant predictors were pupils’ grades for mathematics, history, economics, physics, chemistry, and English language. Differential and interaction effects of educational level and gender were evident. For example, at the level of senior general education, mathematics and chemistry were stronger influencers of the choices of girls than of boys, whereas at the pre-university education level, these subjects were stronger influencers for boys than for girls.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational choice
• report card grades
• secondary education
• multinomial logistic regression
• study profile choice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The Ethical Committee Behavioural and Social Sciences of the University of Groningen approved the current study (approved on 13 March 2018; EC code: 13032018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research [Grant number 405.17.303.2926].

Notes on contributors

Monique A. Dijks

Monique A. Dijks is an educational scientist at Stichting Cito, department CitoLab in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on educational transitions, educational choices, reading comprehension, special needs education and educational measurement.

Matthijs J. Warrens

Matthijs J. Warrens is adjunct professor of Educational Sciences at the University of Groningen,GION Education/Research. His research focuses on school careers, educational choice options, the transition from primary to secondary education, school leavers attainment tests, educational datamining and statistical methods.

Roel J. Bosker

Roel J. Bosker is Honorary Professor Educational Sciences in the University of Groningen, GION Education/Research. His research focuses on educational effectiveness, inequality of educational opportunities, and multilevel modeling.

Hanke Korpershoek

Hanke Korpershoek is adjunct professor of Educational Sciences at the University of Groningen, GION Education/Research. Her research focuses on educational innovation and school improvement, evidence-informed decision making, educational trajectories, choice behaviour and motivation.