A general multivariate latent growth model with applications in student careers Data warehouses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multivariate latent growth model combining growth trajectories and a factor model to analyze student performance and capabilities over time, with potential applications in socio-economic research.

Contribution

It presents an innovative model integrating multivariate growth and factor analysis to study student performance dynamics and latent capabilities.

Findings

Model effectively captures different performance trajectories.

Allows measurement of general latent student capability.

Flexible application to socio-economic panel data.

Abstract

The evaluation of the formative process in the University system has been assuming an ever increasing importance in the European countries. Within this context the analysis of student performance and capabilities plays a fundamental role. In this work we propose a multivariate latent growth model for studying the performances of a cohort of students of the University of Bologna. The model proposed is innovative since it is composed by: (1) multivariate growth models that allow to capture the different dynamics of student performance indicators over time and (2) a factor model that allows to measure the general latent student capability. The flexibility of the model proposed allows its applications in several fields such as socio-economic settings in which personal behaviours are studied by using panel data.