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The Absence of Failure: Children at Risk in the Knowledge Based Economy

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Abstract

This study seeks to identify the relationship between educational failure in compulsory schooling and the risk of social exclusion, a relation assumed to be strengthened by the coming of the knowledge-based economies. Although educational achievements correlate with the socioeconomic status (SES) of the parents, students whose backgrounds are characterized by socioeconomic risk factors seem to be influenced by this to only a modest degree if educational achievements are above a certain level; below this level there is high risk for future marginalization, regardless of the socioeconomic position of the parents. Poor school performances correlate strongly with the risk of later problem behaviour and welfare dependency. Young people with a public care background are especially disadvantaged in relation to schooling.

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Notes

  1. OECD underlines that the term is based on the recognition of knowledge as a driver of productivity in modern economies. See: http://www.oecd.org/science/sci-tech/1913021.pdf

  2. For a description of the Norwegian population registers, see http://www.rhd.uit.no/nhdc/Prosjektrapport300511.pdf

  3. Due to the missing of necessary subject grades, close to 4 % of the pupils lack average point scores, and are not included in the analysis.

  4. Relative income is calculated for all men and women separately the year the mother turns 35 and the father turns 40; the mothers and fathers are then positioned within the profile of income of that age group that year.

  5. Because father charged with crime is combined with only some of the other categories, this variable is omitted in these calculations.

  6. This refers to capacity for writing essays, knowledge about the literature in the curriculum, etc. not only to reading and writing skills as such.

  7. Based on the greedy algorithm, implying that once a match is made, the match is not reconsidered. The matching implies that factors belonging to only one of the groups are removed from the comparisons.

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Frønes, I. The Absence of Failure: Children at Risk in the Knowledge Based Economy. Child Ind Res 9, 247–260 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-015-9309-3

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