Attitude toward school does not predict academic achievement

This study, by analyzing the PISA 2003, 2009, and 2012 datasets, finds virtually no direct relationships between students' general attitude toward school and their academic achievement in reading and mathematics. The lack of substantial relation between attitude and achievement was found for the majority of 64 countries who participated in the PISA 2012 survey. The finding was also consistent across subgroups of students, by gender, family SES, countries' OECD membership, and variations in the within-country modal grades, as well as for students at the lower and higher levels of attitude or achievement. A moderately strong relationship between attitude and achievement was shown only among students at the highest end of the SES spectrum and in a handful of countries (i.e., Qatar, Iceland, and Australia). Structural equation modeling shows that attitude toward school is at best indirectly related to achievement but the strength of that indirect link is rather small as well.