Modeling and predicting the Spanish Bachillerato academic results over the next few years using a random network model

J.-C. Cortés, J.-M. Colmenar, J.-I. Hidalgo, A. Sánchez-Sánchez, F.-J. Santonja and R.-J. Villanueva

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2016, vol. 442, issue C, 36-49

Abstract: Academic performance is a concern of paramount importance in Spain, where around of 30% of the students in the last two courses in high school, before to access to the labor market or to the university, do not achieve the minimum knowledge required according to the Spanish educational law in force. In order to analyze this problem, we propose a random network model to study the dynamics of the academic performance in Spain. Our approach is based on the idea that both, good and bad study habits, are a mixture of personal decisions and influence of classmates. Moreover, in order to consider the uncertainty in the estimation of model parameters, we perform a lot of simulations taking as the model parameters the ones that best fit data returned by the Differential Evolution algorithm. This technique permits to forecast model trends in the next few years using confidence intervals.

Keywords: Academic underachievement; Random network modeling; Transmission dynamics; Differential Evolution (DE); Prediction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:442:y:2016:i:c:p:36-49

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.08.032

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