School aspirations and results: the chicken or the egg

Research team: Mathieu Ichou

Students’ aspirations and ambitions are often considered as a decisive element in their academic success. But at the same time they are interpreted as an outcome of the students’ academic results. In this project, Mathieu Ichou questions this potentially reciprocal relation. As a first step he seeks to understand if aspirations cause the academic results or are their consequence. As a second step, he investigates whether the nature and extent of the link between aspirations and academic results differ between natives and second-generation immigrants. In order to do this, he uses data drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE).

To learn more, click on the picture below (pdf in French): "Aspirations et trajectoires scolaires en Grande-Bretagne", June 2013