Crisis Volatility of Human Capital and Student Achievement in Russia: Evidence from International Education Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2025.4.2758Keywords:
human capital, family academic resources, cultural capital, school students’ achievement, literacy measurement, PISA, PIAAC, adult competences, Russian education, social reproductionAbstract
In comparative analysis of data from international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS programs there is a stable pattern of achievement distribution: Russian students from families with high levels of cultural capital (measured via the “number of books at home” indicator) have lower competence than students from other European countries, while Russian students from families with lower levels of cultural capital demonstrate equal or even higher levels of competence. There was an attempt in literature to explain this result through the differences in national school curriculums. In this paper we pay attention to the human and cultural capital of school students’ parents in attempt to develop a different interpretative strategy. In the article PIAAC and PISA data is used to compare conditionally identified “parents” and “children” among residents of Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Estonia and Finland.
Although human capital in a country in general depend on the state of the school system, it’s increase and depreciation not limited to it. In this regard, the reproduction of human capital is considered to be a fundamental societal process. The first post-Soviet generation (from which the parents of today's school students mainly come) got education and entered the labor market in the conditions of crisis Russia of 1990s. The article shows that, firstly, the profiles of measured competence among school students and adults (“parents”) match in Russia and in a number of other countries. Secondly, a cohort effect was found in the distributions of adult competences in Russia. This effect consists in a decrease in measured competence of the “crisis” post-Soviet cohort of the 1990s both against the background of the previous “Soviet” cohort and against the background of the same cohorts in other countries. It is quite possible that the decrease in the level of real incorporated human capital (as opposed to possession of formal diplomas) is reflected in the achievements of school students. Thirdly, difficulties were discovered with the conversion of human capital into other types of capital in Russia. This result is related to the characteristics of the labor market in Russia, as well as internal heterogeneity of the group of professionals in the country, which also contributes to the explanation of the Russian low achievement paradox.
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