Beyond the grade: defining school success and failure profiles

Abstract Based on a set of variables associated with school success / failure, this study analyses how they combine in differentiated school profiles. In a longitudinal design, 140 pupils from 7th to 9th grade were accompanied by repeated measurements of psychological, social and family variables and school grades. In the cluster, analysis three school profiles were identified. The first, called failure profile not involved with school corresponds to the group with low grades, whose personal and socio-family characteristics make learning difficult. The second group also corresponds to a failure profile but has characteristics that cushion these negative effects (engaged school failure profile). The last group, school success profile, includes students with good grades, and whose personal and socio-family characteristics support their good results. These results emphasize the need to go beyond the grade; counteracting the importance it has in defining what is the school success / failure.