Disadvantaged Outperforming Advantaged Students in Saudi Arabia: Factors Explaining the Odd as a Guide for Educational Leaders

Abstract

The relationship between students’ academic achievement and socioeconomic status has been a topic of interest for decades. It is now well established in the research literature that students with high socioeconomic status are more likely to perform better academically than their counterparts. Despite this generally accepted claim, some schools with disadvantaged students outperform schools with advantaged students. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, TIMSS 2011 data for 8th-grade math students showed nine schools serving disadvantaged students with scores in the top 25th percentiles and eight schools serving advantaged students with scores in the bottom 25th percentiles. Yet, these two types of schools deviating from the literature have received less attention from the research community. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate factors explaining student achievement of these two types of schools, which defies findings from the literature. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers’ major, professional development, collaborations, students’ motivations, and students’ perceptions of their schools, teachers, and ability to do well on the subject were the main significant differences between the two groups. Based on these findings, recommendations for future studies and policy are drawn.