Escolas secundárias portuguesas com melhores e piores resultados académicos: Dimensões do aluno, da família e da escola

Schools have a crucial role on the promotion of adaptive academic trajectories of their students. The efficacy of adaptive academic trajectories promotion requires that interventions are tailored to fit the students’ characteristics and needs. Therefore, the understanding of the characteristics of students from schools with different profiles (e.g. effective Vs non effective schools) has important implications for school improvement efforts. The knowledge about the values that the main predictors of adaptive academic trajectories assume in schools with different profiles is crucial so they can adapt/target their priorities and interventions to the students’ characteristics and needs. The aim of this study was to describe the values that several school, family and students dimensions assume in effective and non effective schools. Based on the schools national rankings, we selected two groups of schools. Those schools classified in the first positions of the national rankings in the last 5 years were included in the group of High-Achieving schools. Those schools classified in the last positions of the national rankings in the last 5 years were included in the group of Low-Achieving schools. Participated in this study 2428 Portuguese 12 graders (1104 students from schools with a consistent history of good academic results (GR) and 1.324 students from schools with a consistent history of poor academic results (PR). Students from high-achieving schools registered more positive results in the majority of the assessed dimensions (school, family and students dimensions). These results are consistent with evidences about the influence of the contextual variables on the students’ academic performance and about the school, family and students characteristics associated to schools efficacy. Besides, these results have majorimplications to the Portuguese schools improvement efforts, as they contribute to the design and to the implementation of strategies for the promotion of positive academic trajectories (especially for schools in challenging circumstances).