Differences in School and Instruction Characteristics between High‐, Average‐, and Low‐Effective Schools*

Abstract

ABSTRACT Secondary multilevel analyses on the data set of the national evaluation of the Dutch Educational Priority Program (EPP) were applied to select schools that are high, average and low effective across grades and school years. Analyses were carried out on arithmetic achievement data of some 50,000 pupils in 560 primary schools. These children were tested both in 1988 and 1990. Differences in school and instruction characteristics between the three types of schools were explored to explain differences in effectiveness. Results show that only one school characteristic, educational leadership, was related (negatively) to effectiveness. With regard to instruction characteristics the picture only partly is consistent with earlier research: teachers in high effective schools give more whole‐class instruction, more often have the same minimum goals for all pupils and spend more time on learning activities and evaluation of learning tasks. They also offer more learning content during the school year. On the other hand they spend less hours during the week on arithmetic and register less frequently the mastering of learning content. It is concluded that efficient allocation of opportunity and time to learn within arithmetic lessons seems to be especially important in explaining differences in pupils' arithmetic achievement among schools.