Background: Large-scale cross-national studies designed to measure student achievement use different social, cultural, economic and other background variables to explain observed differences in that achievement. Prior to their inclusion into a prediction model, these variables are commonly scaled into latent background indices. To allow…

This study considers the issue of weak literacy development and early school leaving in Malta. In spite of a lack of a direct or indirect causal link between the two, in the case of Malta these issues seem to be almost exclusively specific to children attending the State school. Children from the Church and the Independent sectors are minimally…