Multilevel Network Item Response Modeling for Discovering Differences Between Innovation and Regular School Systems in Korea

TL;DR

This study uses advanced network data analysis to compare innovation and regular school systems in South Korea, revealing some differences among schools but limited systemic differences in student well-being.

Contribution

It introduces a multilevel network item response model to uncover school differences that traditional models may overlook in educational system comparisons.

Findings

Some schools differ significantly from others.

No strong evidence of systemic differences in student well-being.

Detected differences are unrelated to school system type.

Abstract

The innovation school system in South Korea has been developed in response to the traditional high-pressure school system in South Korea, with a view to cultivating a bottom-up and student-centered educational culture. Despite its ambitious goals, questions have been raised about the success of the innovation school system. Leveraging data from the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study (GEPS) along with advances in the statistical analysis of network data and educational data, we compare the two school systems in more depth. We find that some schools are indeed different from others, and those differences are not detected by conventional multilevel models. Having said that, we do not find much evidence that the innovation school system differs from the regular school system in terms of self-reported mental well-being, although we do detect differences among some schools that appear to be unrelated to the school system.