This article documents the regional gaps in achievement among students enrolled in primary and secondary schools and examines the various drivers at the individual, family, school and local level. The analysis relies on rich information from INVALSI standardized tests and from the questionnaires distributed to pupils, teachers and school principals in the years preceding the onset of the pandemic.
Pupils from the Centre and North and from the South of Italy achieve similar test scores in primary schools, while gaps emerge during secondary school. Gaps in disfavour of students in southern Italy appear to reflect only to some extent the observable differences across the two macro-areas in terms of students, families and schools' characteristics. The socio-economic conditions of the local context (such as the labour market conditions) appear to play a role as well.