This document analyzes differences in educational achievement between national and non-national students in Saudi Arabia using TIMSS 2007 data. It finds that non-national students generally outperform national students, even when attending schools with a national majority. While national students show a deficit in human capital compared to non-nationals, this alone does not fully explain their underrepresentation in skilled private sector jobs in Saudi Arabia. The study aims to inform debates around education reforms and labor market participation.

1. COMPARING NATIONAL AND NON-
NATIONAL STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN
SAUDI ARABIA:
Analyzing Economic Participation Disparity
Using Educational Indicators
Alexander W. Wiseman Paper presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting
American Educational Research Association
F. Brandon LaRue New Orleans, LA, USA

2. Research Goals/Questions
2
 Responding to rhetoric about education impact
of non-nationals:
1. Are children of non-national workers detrimental
to overall Saudi student performance?
 Responding to rhetoric about labor market
impact of non-nationals:
2. Is a lack of human capital among Saudi
nationals a sufficient explanation for their
underrepresentation in the private sector labor
market?

3. Definition of Terms
3
 National vs. non-national
 Legal/traditional definition
 Patrilineal citizenship
 Our working definition
 Ifany parent is non-native, then we define the student
as non-national.
 Not concerned with legal status
 Interested in social/educational factors associated with
having non-national parents

4. Percent of GCC Labor Force by Sector and Country
4

5. Percent of GCC Labor Force by Sector and Country
5

6. 6

7. GCC Labor Markets
7
 High levels of non-national participation.
 High levels of unemployment among nationals.
 Public vs. private sector
 National aversion to private sector and “low
status” positions.
 Educated youth holding out for public sector
employment.
 Saudi Arabia is least reliant on non-national
labor.

8. Methods (data)
8
 TIMSS 2007
 8thgrade
 Math and science achievement
 GCC countries: All except UAE. Dubai is a
“benchmarking” participant.

9. Challenges
9
 Definition of national vs. non-national
 TIMSS does not directly ask about national status
 Possible measurements of “Saudiness” using
TIMSS
 Birthplace of student
 Birthplace of parents
 Further challenge: mother and/or father?
 Language spoken at home

10. Challenges
10
 National vs. non-national schools
 TIMSS do not directly measure degree to which a
school is national or non-national
 Indirect measurement: % of students whose 1st
language is test language
 Selection bias
 Addressing labor market through educational
assessment limits information to children and
their parents. Childless adult workers are not
included.

11. Overcoming Challenges
11
 National vs. non-national schools
 Once concept of “national student” is set, can use
school IDs for students combined with their
national/non-national status to generate numbers
of national vs. non-national students.
 However, TIMSS sample of each school might not
accurately reflect national vs. non-national
numbers.
 No data available on teachers’ national status,
birthplace, language, etc.

12. Overcoming Challenges
12
 Selection bias
 Unavoidably limits scope to children in school and
their parents.
 This will include a broad range of Saudi nationals, but
a narrow range of non-nationals.
 non-nationals with children are more likely to be skilled
workers. non-nationals in low skilled, low status positions
are unlikely to bring their families or have families while in
Saudi Arabia.
 Acceptable limitation
 National vs. non-national conflict over skilled occupations is
1) more closely tied to education, and 2) more of a
sociopolitical concern in Saudi Arabia.

13. Methods (Descriptive Analysis)
13
 Comparison of mean math achievement across
countries and between groups
 Students with two native-born parents (nationals)
 Students with one native-born parents
 Students with no native-born parents
 Comparison of mean math achievement across
school types and between groups
 Nationals in national-majority schools
 Non-nationals in national-majority schools
 Nationals in non-national majority schools
 Non-nationals in national majority schools

14. Methods (HLM)
14
Yij = β0j + β1j(BS4GBOOK)ij + β2j(BS4GMFED)ij +
Β3j(BS4GFMED)ij+ β4j(LANGREV)ij + β5j(FEMALE)ij
+ β6j(MATHJOBR)ij + β7j(MATHUNIR)ij +
β8j(MBORNREV)ij + β9j(FBORNREV)ij +
β10j(SBORNREV)ij+ eij,
β0j=γ00+ γ01(PCTNATL)0j + γ02(MATHAVG)0j +
γ03(PCTFEM)0j + γ04(ECONDIS)0j +
γ05(MATHRESS)0j + u0j,

15. Variables (student level)
15
 Math achievement  Do you think doing
well in math is
 Mother/Father
important to get the
birthplace job you want?”
 Student birthplace  Math-based job
 Language at home expectation
 Mother/Father  “Do you think doing
education well in math is
 Gender important to get the
job you want?”
 Books in the home
 Math-based university

16. Variables (school level)
16
 Economic disadvantage of the community
 Shortage of math resources
 School’s math achievement mean
 % of female students (aggregate based on
TIMSS participants from that school)
 % of non-national students (aggregate based
on TIMSS participants from that school)

17. Results (Descriptive Analysis)
17
Table 2. 8th Grade Math Achievement by Country and Parents' Origin (TIMSS 2007).
Both (National) Only One Neither (Expatriate) ANOVA
Country N Mean SD N Mean SD N Mean SD F
Bahrain 3224 399.6 76.8 414 387.4 80.2 469 412.5 79.9 11.662 ***
Kuwait 3011 355.8 69.3 510 349.4 77.3 369 369.1 80.4 8.349 ***
Oman 3932 378.9 87.1 453 341.1 90.4 286 354.5 99.9 44.374 ***
Qatar 3946 297.6 81.7 1047 297.1 88.1 1923 337.5 82.3 161.943 ***
Saudi Arabia 3286 328.3 67.2 380 317.6 75.2 450 356.9 74.5 41.614 ***
Dubai (UAE) 544 400.0 83.8 263 410.5 86.2 1926 490.2 81.1 318.462 ***
GCC Mean 17944 352.2 86.2 3067.0 336.7 92.0 5424 402.9 106.4 760.410 ***
Int'l Mean 193153 456.8 107.3 20788.0 444.7 117.7 19979 460.4 112.3 134.070 ***
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

18. Results (Descriptive Analysis)
18
Table 3. 8th Grade Math Achievement by Country and National/Expatriate School Majority (TIMSS 2007).
National Majority Schools Expatriate Majority Schools
Country National Mean Expatriate Mean National Mean Expatriate Mean
Bahrain 409.1 405.4 393.0 427.1
Kuwait 352.1 349.1 337.8 395.5
Oman 368.0 353.8 369.0 389.6
Qatar 286.9 330.7 311.0 354.8
Saudi Arabia 329.2 349.8 328.0 369.9
Dubai (UAE) 393.8 429.4 420.1 481.6
GCC Mean (not including Dubai)351.3 355.0 332.8 376.5
Int'l Mean 481.7 477.9 484.6 483.1
*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

19. Table 5. Impact of Students' National Status on Math Achievement by Country (TIMSS 2007).
Fixed Effects Bahrain Kuwait Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Dubai (UAE)
Student Level Indicators
No/Very Few Books in 7.707223 *** 1.469776 9.011839 *** 3.54945 *** 3.81748 *** 7.259926 ***
the Home
19 (BS4GBOOK) of
Education Level 3.87356 *** 0.989254 -1.500936 1.763905 *** 3.3012 *** 1.607505
Mother (BS4GMFED)
Education Level of 3.616872 *** 2.660671 *** 3.18505 *** 3.513204 *** 3.55026 *** 3.747731 *
Father (BS4GFMED)
Language of Test 2.101637 3.081098 ** -1.402683 7.201244 *** -1.9819 * 0.096378
Spoken at Home
Female (FEMALE) -18.59745 ** -3.7702 0.162626 -0.019237 -42.581 * -3.293325
Math-based University 11.229673 *** 13.74927 *** 16.384905 *** 10.961482 *** 6.58942 *** 2.950564
Expectations
Math-based Job -2.580659 -0.85865 1.076043 4.157429 *** 2.3837 1.637485
Expectations
Mother Born in Country -12.65778 ** -23.1038 *** -8.502609 -28.13906 *** -18.367 *** -21.38213 ***
(MBORNREV)
Father Born in Country -14.74077 * -3.74309 13.483481 * -16.80284 *** -14.101 *** -17.19897 **
(FBORNREV)
Student Born in Country 19.491469 ** 25.65123 *** 40.558746 *** 21.988073 *** 34.2603 *** -3.276273
(SBORNREV)
School Level Indicators
Percent of National 11.426409 10.75475 -22.768 29.285606 *** 19.6106 ** 50.141358 ***
Students (PCTNATL)
Mean School Math 0.786977 *** 0.876249 *** 0.828818 *** 0.833056 *** 0.78718 *** 0.861777 ***
Achievement
Percent of Girls at 17.923865 * 2.440081 -4.373561 1.288904 38.7991 * 1.636801
School (PCTFEM)
Economic Disadvantage 0.702913 -0.04394 1.529722 -0.536642 1.03999
of Community
Shortage of Math 0.237363 -0.36567 -1.354684 -1.364046 0.25363 -2.017368
Resources
Intercept 6.06411 -26.1504 ** -31.00417 -43.03615 *** 1.08435 14.482153

20. Findings
20
 Students of non-national parents generally
achieve at higher levels.
 Students born in the country generally achieve
at higher levels.
 Students in national-majority schools generally
achieve at higher levels.

21. What does it mean?
21
 Skilled non-nationals that have children in their
GCC country of residence are bringing their
own education to bear to increase their
children’s chances.
 This reflects the higher levels of education and
higher importance placed on education by
non-nationals.

22. Revisiting Question 1
22
 Are children of non-national workers
detrimental to overall Saudi student
performance?
 Results show that non-nationals consistently
outperform nationals, even in national-dominated
contexts.
 Non-national parents are generally more
educated, which is to be expected as they moved
to Saudi Arabia because of their skills.

23. Revisiting Question 2
23
 Is a lack of human capital among Saudi
nationals a sufficient explanation for their
underrepresentation in the private sector labor
market?
 Human Capital Theory
 Increased investment in education will result in
increased economic output.
 In the GCC context, increasing the human capital
of nationals will increase their participation in the
private sector.

24. Human Capital Hypothesis
24
 H1:
 Lack of national participation in skilled, private
sector employment can be explained by a human
capital deficit among nationals.
 Corollary to H1: Increasing national human capital
through education will result in increased
participation in the private sector.

25. Human Capital Hypothesis
25
 H0:
 Lack of national participation in skilled, private
sector employment cannot be explained solely by
a human capital deficit among nationals.
 Corollary to H0: Increasing national human capital
through education will not be sufficient to cause
an increased participation in the private sector.

26. Revisiting Question 2
26
 Is a lack of human capital among Saudi
nationals a sufficient explanation for their
underrepresentation in the private sector labor
market?
 Findings do indicate a deficit of human capital
among national students and their families.
 However, while statistically significant and
considerable, is it enough to explain lack of
participation in the private sector among
nationals?
 Weconclude that it is not, and other factors are at
work that supplement the human capital theory.

27. Conclusion
27
 Comparing nationals vs. non-nationals using
TIMSS provided answers to two significant but
straightforward questions in a complex
situation.
 TIMSS has limitations for this type of analysis,
but an understanding of the context can help
overcome.
 HLM is useful to see effect of nationality at
individual and school levels.

28. Conclusion – Potential Uses
28
 Assess reforms – “Tatweer” – eagerly
anticipating TIMSS 2011 results.
 Respond to rhetoric about non-nationals
 Indirectly explain employment differences
 Directly explain achievement differences