{
  "id": 11095922,
  "title": "Parents’ jobs linked more strongly than education to teens’ PISA scores, study finds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/parents-jobs-linked-more-strongly-than-education-to-teens-pisa-scores",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-01T03:26:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Jerusalem Post",
    "slug": "jerusalem-post",
    "url": "https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-910249"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study by the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research reveals that a parent's occupation has a stronger influence on their child's PISA scores than the parent's level of education. The study examined data from 10,336 children aged 15 who took Hebrew-language PISA tests between 2012 and 2022, with both parents employed. The researchers found that knowing a parent's job allowed them to account for over double the difference in students' scores compared to knowing the parents' education level. PISA assesses 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science. The study did not establish causation between occupation and achievement but found associations between fathers' occupations and children's performance in reading, mathematics, and science, while mothers' occupations were more strongly linked to reading. Fathers' occupations in university teaching, science, technology, information, or software were linked to higher scores for their children, while occupations in finance, accounting, and economics, and health and medicine showed moderate positive associations. Children whose mothers worked in technology, information, or software scored higher than the mothers' comparison group, with technology being one of the few fields showing similar positive results for both parents. However, children in early-childhood education and teaching assistant roles had lower scores. The researchers cautioned against interpreting the results as causation, noting that other factors may have contributed to the findings. They emphasized that understanding a student's starting point requires considering both parents' education and occupations, as the education system must aim to reduce the link between family background and achievement to promote equal opportunity and intergenerational mobility.",
  "summary": "Knowing what parents did for a living allowed researchers to account for over double the difference in students’ scores as knowing how much education the parents had.",
  "key_points": [
    "Parent occupation stronger influence than education on teens' PISA scores",
    "Fathers' jobs in tech, science linked to higher children's performance",
    "Mothers' jobs in tech correlated with higher children's reading scores"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}