We have come a long way from the heady days of the Great Society, when most people seemed to believe that education would solve all of our problems, both intellectual and social The Coleman Report in 1966 cast the first doubts, and Jencks ( Inequality ) and Averch ( How Effective is Schooling? ) in 1972 seemed to make it official: nothing that schools do really makes any difference Considering that we spend more on schools than most other state and local governmental functions combined, this is indeed a dreary state of affairs Fifteen Thousand Hours has the temerity to question our present conventional wisdom It is a study of what things do make a difference in pupil outputs in 12 London inner-city secondary schools In many ways, it is a substantial improvement, methodologically, over previous studies First, it studies not just one output (which has usually been the score on some standardized test),

Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and Their Effects on Children

The present study examines the development of a measure tapping students’ perceptions of (pre-service) teachers’ teaching behaviour to explore the practical value of such a measure in teacher education and teacher professional development programs. From a sample of 1,635 students of 91 pre-service teachers teaching in secondary education in The Netherlands, random subsamples of 809 students of 45 teachers and of 826 students of 46 teachers were used for analyses. Classical test analyses were used as a preliminary approach prior to utilizing Rasch modelling to the data. Additionally, multilevel analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of the measure on student academic engagement as an external criterion. Results revealed that a shortened and representative measure of teachers’ behaviour meets the requirements of the Rasch model sufficiently. In addition, the predictive quality of the shortened measure was confirmed. Implications of findings for research and educational practices were discussed.

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Development and evaluation of a questionnaire measuring pre-service teachers’ teaching behaviour: a Rasch modelling approach

This study aimed to identify the classroom and school characteristics that are associated with student achievement in mathematics and Serbian language in primary schools in Serbia. The study sample consisted of 119 public primary schools, 253 classrooms, and 4,857 third-grade students. Variables from 3 past research paradigms – input-output, effective schools, and instructional effectiveness – as well as key student background variables, were first organised in a conceptually integrated model of school effectiveness. Then, they were simultaneously examined as predictors of student achievement in a 3-level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM). This research found little association between school-level variables and student achievement. Several classroom-level policy-malleable variables were found to have small positive associations with student achievement: clear and structured classroom instruction, emphasis on complex (as opposed to basic) skills, whole-class instruction (rather than individual or group work...

Classroom and school factors related to student achievement: what works for students?

https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/86400738/A_longitudinal_study_of_induction_on_the_acceleration_of_growth_in_teaching.pdf

A longitudinal study of induction on the acceleration of growth in teaching quality of beginning teachers through the eyes of their students

(2003). World Class Schools: International Perspectives on School Effectiveness. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 463-466.

World Class Schools: International Perspectives on School Effectiveness

This paper describes student‐level findings of the first large‐scale comprehensive school effectiveness study of the primary education in Serbia. Twenty‐five student‐level variables were examined in a three‐level HLM model using a study sample of almost 5000 students, over 250 classrooms and over 100 schools. Differences between the students were in large part responsible for differences in achievement scores in mathematics and Serbian language. Parental education, Roma minority status, developmental or family problems, gender, student motivation, parental involvement in student work and homework were some of the factors associated with student achievement. Serbian policy‐makers are alerted to possible actions in order to improve mathematics and Serbian language achievement.

Student background factors influencing student achievement in Serbia

In this paper, the author first presents a Multiple Streams model of policymaking introduced by John Kingdon and elaborated by Robert W. Porter. The relevance and usefulness of the model are then exemplified by analyzing a reform in Argentine education. Kingdon and Porter argued that, for education policies to succeed, the following three streams of actions need to meet: problem must be clearly defined, feasible solutions offered, and political consensus obtained. In 1993, Argentina passed the Federal Law of Education in the attempt to reduce large educational inequities between the rich and the poor. The Law largely failed because (1) problems were narrowly defined only by the government, (2) solutions were one-sided, primarily focusing on the financial, and neglecting contextual and implementation problems, and (3) political will existed only at the highest level, while actual capacities of implementing units were far below those needed for the reform. Analyzing policies through the lens of the Multiple Streams model of policymaking is recommended for other policymakers.

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Why education policies fail: Multiple streams model of policymaking

In this paper, the reader embarks on the first part of the review of school effectiveness research. The aim of the review is to offer a clearer picture on whether, which, and how much teacher and school variables impact student achievement, as there is currently no wider and accepted consensus on this matter, in spite of the wealth of various school effectiveness studies. An introduction is followed by a section on fragmented research paradigms. Four subsequent sections describe and critique findings from these paradigms, namely from student background, input-output, effective-schools, and instructional effectiveness studies. The paper concludes with the section on synthesis of findings, which implicate student background variables as the most important for student achievement, followed by instruction and teacher-related variables (in very poor developing countries, input-output factors are also relevant for student success). Subsequent paper will showcase more recent school effectiveness studies that use appropriate methodology and conceptual framework for identification of the most important school effectiveness factors.

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/ft.aspx?id=0579-64310901007t

School effectiveness: Literature review

This paper reviews recent and advanced studies on educational effectiveness. Sec- tion on integrated school effectiveness research is followed by a section on conceptually inte- grated models. The subsequent two sections focus on more methodological limitations of past research: the failure to accommodate the hierarchical nature of schooling and the inability to capture teacher effects. Finally, the last section sums up all relevant facts and research strands.

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Jelena Teodorovic

Papers

Classroom and school factors related to student achievement: what works for students?

Student background factors influencing student achievement in Serbia

Why education policies fail: Multiple streams model of policymaking

School effectiveness: Literature review

Educational effectiveness: key findings