LAUSR

In the existent literature, little attention has been paid to the characteristics of the schools attended by the “resilient” students, i.e. those that, despite their socioeconomic background, are able to obtain high academic results. The paper explores this topic by using OECD-PISA 2009 data for EU-15 countries; we estimate a statistical model to find those school-level variables that are correlated with the probability of a disadvantaged student being resilient, net of country-specific structural differences. A by-product of the study is a better understanding of the educational drivers that help disadvantaged students and this can be beneficial for a country’s educational system as a whole. In particular, the analysis reveals that schools attended by resilient students do offer more extracurricular activities and are characterized by a better positive school climate.