Everybody is looking for patterns and don’t think about outliers.
Research in education has been very oriented towards explaining school failure due to the socio-economic status of students and their families. The results obtained from the studies developed since the 60s of the twentieth century, allow us to conclude that the family background and local contexts explain a relevant part of the variance, but, at best, this proportion only exceptionally exceeds 50%. The problem is knowing what can explain the remaining 50%.
We are sure that there will be other factors that cannot always be quantified and considered in the regression models. What has not been studied are the numerous cases of outliers, that is, those that do not fit the pattern of statistical relations identified. We are especially interested in students who, despite their fragile family background, can achieve results above what could be estimated. The same can be said of schools that contradict the determinism of statistical relations identified from the characterization of the composition of their students, teachers and local contexts where they are included.
In summary, we intend to identify the students and schools that make the difference and dissect the social and educational mechanisms that sustain them.