Height and weight as predictors of achievement, grade repetition and

dropout in rural Peru

Santiago CuetoGroup for the Analysis of Development

(GRADE)

Peru - Study areas

CUSCO

APURIMAC

Longitudinal Design

  1998 1999 2000 2001

Ideal progress 4th grade5th

grade6th grade

1st grade high school

Data collected

Baseline (Achievement

and Anthropometry)

NoAchievemen

tGrade in school

Number of students by grades and

situation in 2001

  Primary school  High

school Total %

 Fourth grade

Fifth grade

Sixth grade  

First grade

Attending 4 57 147 250 458 80%

Dropout 60 42 16 118 20%

Total 64 99 163   250 576 100%

Situation of dropouts from 2000 to 2001

 Situation Females Males

Returned to school 7% 3%

Maintained its condition

57% 33%

Total 64% 36%

n=86

Age, height, weight of students in 1998 by

situation in 2001

  Attending Retained Dropouts

  M SD M SD M SD

Height for age -2.2a 1.0 -2.2a 0.9 -2.3a 1.0

Student's age 11.4a 1.7 11.0a 1.5 13.1b 2.1

Weight for age -1.4a 0.8 -1.4a 0.7 -1.3a 0.8

Body mass index 17.1a 1.7 16.8a 1.4 18.5b 2.3

*Means with different superscripts in each group indicate differences are significant (p<0.05).

Other Characteristics of the students according to their condition in 2001

  Attending Retained Dropouts

  M SD M SD M SD

Proportion of students who attended preschool 0.68a 0.47 0.68a 0.47 0.63ª 0.49

Student’s proficiency in Spanish (3 point scale) 2.45a 0.66 2.13b 0.75 2.16b 0.73

Number of siblings 2.69a 1.34 2.78a 1.43 2.99ª 1.63

Number of education books in the house (school texts, dictionaries, tales) 4.26a 1.71 3.96ª 1.62 3.51b 1.71

Proportion of the students who live with one or two parents 0.94a 0.25 0.86b 0.35 0.59c 0.49

Father’s education 4.97a 3.35 4.51ª 3.09 3.82b 2.86

Mother’s education 2.73a 3.44 2.57ª 2.79 1.65b 2.04

Mother uses Spanish to communicate with her child (proportion) 0.64a 0.48 0.45b 0.5 0.38b 0.49

Number of rooms in the house (without bathroom, kitchen, garage) 2.61a 1.55 2.32a 1.45 1.91b 1.23

Time from the house to school (in minutes) 22.84a 22.91 28.68a 32.76 34.66ª 41.06

*Means with different superscripts in each group indicate differences are significant (p<0.05).

Scores in Arithmetic test – common items

(maximum possible score: 13 points)

Grade in 2001

 Arithmetic test (1998)

Arithmetic test (2000)

Variation (2000-1998)

Fourth and Fifth graders

Mean 4.3 c 7.5 b 3.2Standard deviation

2.5 2.8  

N 48 48  

Sixth graders

Mean 5.0 c 8.4 b 3.5Standard deviation

2.3 2.7  

N 129 129  

High schoolFirst graders

Mean 7.2 a 10.2 a 3.0Standard deviation

2.7 2.4  

N 222 222  

Dropouts

Mean 6.2 b 7.9 b 1.6Standard deviation

2.5 3.3  

N 69 69  

*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.

Reading comprehension – common items (maximum possible score: 40 points)

Grade in 2001

 Reading

comprehension test (1998)

Reading comprehension

test (2000)

Variation (200-1998)

Fourth and Fifth

graders

Mean 12.3 b 19.7 c 7.4Standard

deviation6.3 6.2  

N 59 59  

Sixth graders

Mean 13.5 b 23.4 b 9.9Standard

deviation5.7 5.1  

N 143 143  

High schoolFirst graders

Mean 19.4 a 26.8 a 7.3Standard

deviation6.2 5.6  

N 239 239  

Dropouts

Mean 13.9 b 21.0 b,c 7.1Standard

deviation6.5 8.0  

N 78 78  

*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.

Results in Reading comprehension and arithmetic tests in 2000 – additional items (maximum possible score: 17 and 29 points respectively)

Grade in 2001  Reading

comprehension*Arithmetic*

Fourth and Fifth graders

Mean 5.5 ª 4.3 b Standard deviation 2.8 4.3

N 61 60

Sixth gradersMean 5.3 ª 5.4 b

Standard deviation 3.0 4.0

N 144 146

High schoolFirst graders

Mean 6.0 a 7.8 a

Standard deviation 3.1 4.9

N 248 247

DropoutsMean 5.9 ª 5.9 b

Standard deviation 3.8 5.8

N 80 85

*Tests with different superscripts within each test administrated indicate differences are significant at the 5%.

Correlation among nutrition variables and achievement

** Correlation significant at 1%, * at 5% (2 tailed)

Reading Comprehension (common items) test 1998 0.08 0.08 -0.06N 502 503 502Reading Comprehension (common items) test 2000 0.10 * 0.05 -0.12 *N 481 482 480Arithmetic test 1998 (common items) 0.04 0.09 0.15 **N 452 453 452Arithmetic test 2000 (common items) 0.12 * 0.09 -0.07N 481 482 480Reading comprehension (additional items) test 2000 0.15 ** 0.09 -0.08N 476 477 475Arithmetic test 2000 (aditional items) 0.09 * 0.06 -0.04N 481 482 480

Height for age Weight for age Body mass index

Hierarchical Linear Model analysis for arithmetic and reading comprehension achievement 1998 and 2000 (common items)

Reading comprehension

1998

Reading Comprehension

2000

Arithmetic 1998

Arithmetic 2000

Level 1Student's age in 1998 (in years) -1.136 -0.849 1.203 -0.451(Standard error) (1.847) (1.477) (0.823) (0.695)

Student's age in 1998 - squared (in years) 0.045 0.017 -0.042 0.013(Standard error) (0.077) (0.068) (0.034) (0.029)

Gender (male vs female) 1.494 ** 0.039 0.406 0.204(Standard error) (0.551) (0.445) (0.252) (0.213)

Proficiency in spanish (1 bad, 2 regular, 3 good) 2.158 ** 0.534 0.599 ** 0.438 *(Standard error) (0.499) (0.408) (0.227) (0.193)

Preschool education (Yes vs No) 0.029 0.682 0.374 0.173(Standard error) (0.646) (0.517) (0.292) (0.247)

Family size -0.108 -0.071 -0.003 -0.057(Standard error) (0.155) (0.124) (0.069) (0.058)

Antropometry - Height for age (Z score) 0.215 -0.276 0.059 0.041(Standard error) (0.316) (0.253) (0.145) (0.122)

Body mass Index -0.134 -0.017 0.032 -0.009(Standard error) (0.189) (0.151) (0.083) (0.070)

Time from home to school (Intervals of 15 minutes) -0.537 * 0.026 0.067 -0.058(Standard error) (0.239) (0.192) (0.089) (0.075)

Language used by the mother to comunicate with her child (Spanish vs other) 1.494 * 0.405 0.990 ** 0.110(Standard error) (0.625) (0.503) (0.282) (0.242)

Mother educational level (0 None, 1 Primary, 2 Secondary, y 3 Higher education ) 0.082 0.570 0.313 0.037(Standard error) (0.490) (0.392) (0.223) (0.189)

Reading comprehension score in 1998 0.421 **(Standard error) (0.039)

Arithmetic score in 1998 0.473 **(Standard error) (0.044)

Level 2: School and teacher variablesIntercept Bo 10.950 ** 14.078 ** 5.014 ** 6.591 **(Standard error) (1.605) (2.386) (0.581) (1.493)

Type of school (Full grade vs multigrade ) 3.538 + 0.985 0.608 1.081(Standard error) (1.755) (1.239) (0.610) (0.636)

Teachers with university formation (mean by school) 7.255 + 2.810 *(Standard error) (3.399) (1.234)

Reading comprehension score in 1998 (mean by school) 0.575 **(Standard error) (0.168)

Arithmetic score in 1998 (mean by school) 0.288(Standard error) (0.243)

Sample of students 427 427 397 397Sample of schools 16 16 16 16Level 1 - Variance 30.35 ** 19.42 ** 5.53 ** 3.92 **Level 2 - Variance 9.08 ** 4.04 ** 0.94 ** 1.29 **

Proportion of variance between schools 0.23 0.17 0.15 0.25

** p<0.01, * p< 0.05, + p<0.10

Hierarchical Generalized Nonlinear Model analysis for pass to high school and dropout

CoefficientOdds Ratio

CoefficientOdds Ratio

Level 1: Student and family variablesStudent's age in 1998 (in years) -0.042 0.959 0.605 ** 1.831(Standard error) (0.097) (0.125)Gender (Male vs Female) 0.181 1.199 -0.628 + 0.534(Standard error) (0.277) (0.369)Preschool education -0.088 0.916 0.326 1.385(Standard error) (0.338) (0.436)Proficiency in spanish (1 bad, 2 regular, 3 good) 0.329 1.390 -0.076 0.927(Standard error) (0.257) (0.320)Language used by the mother to comunicate with her child (Spanish vs other) 0.500 + 1.648 -0.320 0.726(Standard error) (0.296) (0.411)Antropometry - Height for age (Z score) -0.238 0.788 0.379 + 1.460(Standard error) (0.159) 1.173 (0.203)Body mass index 0.027 1.028 0.127 1.135(Standard error) (0.091) 1.095 (0.099)The student lives with at least one of his parents (yes vs no) 0.919 2.506 -1.384 ** 0.251(Standard error) (0.718) (0.421)Arithmetic test 1998 (standarized score) 0.793 ** 2.211 -0.119 0.888(Standard error) (0.193) (0.217)Comprenhension test 1998 (standarized score) 1.233 ** 3.432 0.183 1.201(Standard error) (0.224) (0.246)Level 2: School and teacher variablesIntercept Bo -4.732 * 0.009 -1.743 ** 0.175(Standard error) (2.040) (0.492)Type of school (Full grade vs multigrade) 1.070 + 2.916 -0.971 0.379(Standard error) (0.563) (0.688)There is a high school close to the school (yes vs -0.431 0.650 0.335(Standard error) (0.638) (0.741)Reading comprehension in 1998 (mean score by school) 0.084 1.087 -0.108 0.898(Standard error) (0.059) (0.074)

Deviance 664.22 456.83Level 2 - Variance 0.26 * 0.59 **

** p<0.01, * p<0.05, + p<0.10

DropoutHigh school