Student−teacher ratio 5 1.42 Outcomes Emotional engagement 1 297 9.1 Cognitive engagement 606 4.25 Note: The total sample size was n = 14 251. Results Separating the impact of student and school characteristics on engagement A so-called model’ (that is, a random intercept model without any predictors) allows for ‘null separating the variation in emotional and cognitive engagement outcomes that can be attributed to schools from the variation that can be attributed to individual student characteristics. Results from the null model (appendix C) indicate that 95.7% and 92.5% of the variation across emotional and cognitive engagement, respectively, can be attributed to individual student background characteristics (figure 1). This suggests that school characteristics generally matter very little with respect to influencing the engagement of 15-year-olds over and above individual characteristics. It is possible, however, that for students at the margins who are at risk of dropping out the otherwise modest influence of school factors could be important in tipping the balance. Figure 1 Per cent variation accounted for by student versus school-level characteristics Student-level results Demographic characteristics
Student−teacher ratio 5 1.42 Outcomes Emotional engagement 1 297 9.1 Cognitive engagement 606 4.25 Note: The total sample size was n = 14 251. Results Separating the impact of student and school characteristics on engagement A so-called ‘null model’ (that is, a random intercept model without any predictors) allows for separating the variation in emotional and cognitive engagement outcomes that can be attributed to schools from the variation that can be attributed to individual student characteristics. Results from the null model (appendix C) indicate that 95.7% and 92.5% of the variation across emotional and cognitive engagement, respectively, can be attributed to individual student background characteristics (figure 1). This suggests that school characteristics generally matter very little with respect to influencing the engagement of 15-year-olds over and above individual characteristics. It is possible, however, that for students at the margins who are at risk of dropping out the otherwise modest influence of school factors could be important in tipping the balance. Figure 1 Per cent variation accounted for by student versus school-level characteristics Student-level results Demographic characteristics
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