Conference Program

The article presents the results of a longitudinal analysis of educational outcomes based on the National External Assessments in Bulgarian Language and Literature (BLL) and Mathematics, focusing on two student cohorts in Bulgaria (born in 1999 and 2003). The analysis examines achievement at the end of primary education and at the end of lower secondary education. These temporal cross-sections allow for intergenerational comparison between students educated in different socio-economic and institutional contexts, as well as for tracing the persistence of inequalities over time. The quantitative analysis employs a Univariate General Linear Model (GLM) to examine the effects of three independent variables: gender (female/male), language spoken at home (Bulgarian/other), and type of settlement (capital city/regional city/small town or rural area). The dependent variable is the average score on the National External Assessments. The model enables estimation of both the main effects of each factor and their interaction effects (e.g., language × settlement type). The analysis of data from the two cohorts indicates that the Bulgarian educational system tends to reproduce socio-cultural inequalities rather than mitigate them. Linguistic, social, and geographical differences form a matrix of cultural and social asymmetry within which schooling operates. Building on the principal finding of the quantitative analysis—that the language spoken at home remains the strongest predictor of academic achievement—we applied a set of selection criteria to identify schools demonstrating stable and improving educational outcomes in the National External Assessments. Through qualitative analysis of the school environment and its key stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, local community, etc.), as well as of the implemented school-level activities, we identified the factors associated with improving outcomes as reflected in assessment results.