What are the main factors — relating to students as individuals and to their family backgrounds, to local contexts, but also between schools and within schools — that explain learning gaps in Italy? And to what extent can schools make a difference in improving student outcomes and reducing these disparities?
These are the questions addressed by the analyses and policy recommendations presented in Learning Gaps in Italy. An Investigation into Differences in Learning Across Territories and Schools, a study promoted by Fondazione Agnelli and Fondazione Rocca.
The research, which also involved a research group from Sapienza University of Rome, focused — through both quantitative and qualitative analyses — on learning disparities in upper secondary education, particularly in Year 10 (that is, after ten years of schooling). The study drew on INVALSI 2022–23 data and integrated them with data and information from OECD-PISA 2022 on the skills of fifteen-year-olds.
The findings confirm both the scale and the complexity of learning gaps across the country, highlighting the different levels at which these disparities emerge and interact. The analyses show that, alongside students’ individual characteristics, family background, and the socioeconomic and cultural features of local contexts, learning gaps are also significantly shaped by differences “between schools” and “within schools”. It is at these levels that explanations — and, as far as possible, solutions — must be sought.
One possible answer lies in the way each school organises itself, making use of the — albeit limited — spaces for autonomy available within the education system.