Impact of parental education on their children’s achievements: a comparison of Israel to the leading countries in PISA exams, 2006-2018

Education systems’ success in dealing with pupils’ gaps from home is vitally important in providing equal opportunities and for accelerating intergenerational mobility in society as a whole. Focusing on all of the international PISA exams in reading, mathematics and science during the years 2006-2018, this study examines how successful Israel’s education system has been in reducing these gaps. The impact of parental education levels on their children’s achievements in the PISA exams over the years is measured for Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking pupils in Israel and compared with a benchmark group of the highest scoring countries. The findings indicate that while even the leading education systems were unable to completely eliminate achievement gaps resulting from differences inparental education, Israel’s education system has performed considerably worse in this regard. Gaps in exam scores between Hebrew-speaking pupils, on the basis oftheir parents’ education levels, are much higher – sometimes more than double –the gaps in the leading countries. Even after statistically controlling for additional explanatory variables, the relationship between parents’ education and their children’s achievements remains much stronger in Israel than in the leading countries. In lieu of a substantial improvement in the ability of Israel’s education system to overcome the gaps with which the pupils come from home, the hurdles on the path toward intergenerational mobility may become insurmountably high. --