Differential School Effectiveness Research Articles

Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness revisited

Relatively little research has explored whether schools differ in their effectiveness for different group of pupils (e.g. by ethnicity, poverty or gender), for different curriculum subjects (e.g. English, mathematics or science) or over time (different cohorts). This paper uses multilevel modelling to analyse the national test results at age 7 and age 11 of over 6000 pupils attending 57 mainstream primary schools over three successive years in a socially and ethnically diverse inner London borough. The pupil groups with the poorest progress were White British pupils on Free School Meals (FSM) and Black Caribbean pupils, both those entitled and those not entitled to FSM. Differences between schools in average pupil progress were large, but there was no evidence of differential school effectiveness in relation to FSM, ethnicity or gender, all pupil groupings benefitted from attending the more effective schools and to a broadly similar extent. More effective schools ‘raised the bar’ but did not ‘close the gap’ suggesting that differences between schools in ‘quality’ plays little role in equity gaps. While school residuals for different pupil groups were extremely highly correlated, school residuals were only moderately correlated across subjects (English, mathematics and science) and over time, with particularly poor stability for English.

Context and Implications Document for: Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness revisited

This guide accompanies the following article: Steve Strand. Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness revisited. Review of Education, DOI:10.1002/rev3.3054

School effects and ethnic, gender and socio-economic gaps in educational achievement at age 11

There are long-standing achievement gaps in England associated with socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity and gender, but relatively little research has evaluated interactions between these variables or explored school effects on such gaps. This paper analyses the national test results at age 7 and age 11 of 2,836 pupils attending 68 mainstream primary schools in an ethnically diverse inner London borough. The groups with the lowest educational achievement and poorest progress were both Black Caribbean and White British low SES pupils. White British middle and high SES pupils made substantially more progress than White British low SES pupils, significantly increasing the SES gap over time. However low and high SES Black pupils made equally poor progress age 7–11. School effects on pupil progress were large, but there was no evidence of differential school effectiveness in relation to SES, ethnicity or gender. Low SES pupils in the more effective schools performed significantly better than high SES pupils in the less effective schools, but all pupils (both low and high SES) benefit from attending the more effective schools and so these schools do not eliminate the SES gap. The limits to change that may be achieved by schools alone are discussed.

Analysing Differential School Effectiveness Through Multilevel and Agent-Based Modelling

During the last thirty years education researchers have developed models for judging the comparative performance of schools, in studies of what has become known as ‘differential school effectiveness’. A great deal of empirical research has been carried out to understand why differences between schools might emerge, with variable-based models being the preferred research tool. The use of more explanatory models such as agent-based models (ABM) has been limited. This paper describes an ABM that addresses this topic, using data from the London Educational Authority's Junior Project. To compare the results and performance with more traditional modelling techniques, the same data are also fitted to a multilevel model (MLM), one of the preferred variable-based models used in the field. The paper reports the results of both models and compares their performances in terms of predictive and explanatory power. Although the fitted MLM outperforms the proposed ABM, the latter still offers a reasonable fit and provides a causal mechanism to explain differences in the identified school performances that is absent in the MLM. Since MLM and ABM stress different aspects, rather than conflicting they are compatible methods.

Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness by ethnicity, gender, poverty, and prior achievement

This study analyses the educational progress of an entire national cohort of over 530,000 pupils in England between age 7 in 2000 and age 11 in 2004. The results show that Black Caribbean boys not entitled to free school meals, and particularly the more able pupils, made significantly less progress than their White British peers. There is no evidence that the gap results from Black Caribbean pupils attending less effective schools. There is also no evidence of differential effectiveness in relation to ethnic group; schools that were strong in facilitating the progress of White British pupils were equally strong in facilitating the progress of Black Caribbean pupils. There was some evidence of differential school effectiveness by pupil prior achievement, gender, and poverty, but the absolute sizes of the effects were small. The results suggest the poor progress of Black Caribbean pupils reflects a systemic issue rather than the influence of a small number of “low quality” schools.

A cross-national analysis of the relations of school choice and effectiveness differences between private-dependent and public schools

We apply propensity score matching to the estimation of differential school effectiveness between the publicly funded private sector and the public sector in a sample of 26 countries. This technique allows us to distinguish between school choice and school effectiveness processes and thus to account for selectivity issues involved in the comparison of the 2 sectors. Concerning school choice, we found 2 patterns: a choice of upwardly mobile parents for private schools and a preference for segregation by (lower) middle-class parents. As regards school effectiveness, our results indicate that, after controlling for selectivity, a substantial advantage in reading achievement remains among students in publicly funded private schools in 10 out of the 26 countries.

Differential School Effectiveness in Relation to Sex and Social Class: Some Implications for Policy Evaluation

This article reviews school effectiveness theory, concentrating on the unidimensionality of the school effect concept, and focuses on differential school effectiveness, by which is meant the capacity of the school to be effective with different groups of pupils. It presents findings from research exploring the associations between sex, social class, and school attended with Cypriot primary pupils’ progress in Mathematics. There was no evidence of significant differential effectiveness in relation to sex and social class, the gap between boys and girls, and between different social classes increased in all schools, reflecting the national picture. Implications for school self-evaluation are discussed.

Describing School Effects with Residual Terms

This study attempts to make more accessible an approach that can be used to rank the performance of individual schools using residual terms from a hierarchical linear model. Specifically, the study describes procedures that can be used to summarize the effect of schools when interactions between school practice and student background exist and applies them to a fairly realistic school effects data set. This article also serves as a reminder of the importance of considering differential school effectiveness by illustrating problems that can occur when the school effect is summarized by a single quantitative indicator.

Ethnic Group, Sex and Economic Disadvantage: associations with pupils’ educational progress from Baseline to the end of Key Stage 1

AbstractVery few studies have explored the associations between ethnic group, sex, economic disadvantage and school attended on pupils’ progress during their earliest years at school (age 4‐7). The present study reports an analysis of the educational progress made by over 5000 pupils between Baseline assessment at age 4 and national end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) tests at age 7. There were marked differences in pupil attainment associated with ethnic group, sex and economic disadvantage, both at Baseline and at the end of KS1. In general, differences between groups of pupils tended to increase rather than decrease over time. Pupils entitled to free school meals (FSM) made less progress in all subjects than pupils not entitled to FSM, girls made more progress than boys in reading and writing but less progress in mathematics and Caribbean pupils made less progress, and Chinese pupils more progress, than English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish (ESWNI) pupils. There were, however, significant interactions between the pupil factors. Caribbean and Black Other boys, African and Caribbean pupils with high Baseline attainment and ESWNI pupils entitled to FSM all made less than expected progress. The results confirm previous research indicating the particular primary school a pupil attends has a significant effect on their progress during the early years. However, there was no evidence of significant differential school effectiveness in relation to ethnic group, sex or economic disadvantage. Thus, the same schools that were most effective for either ESWNI, girls, or economically advantaged pupils were also most effective for either Caribbean, boys, or economically disadvantaged pupils.

Stability and Consistency in Secondary Schools’ Effects on Students’ GCSE Outcomes over Three Years*

ABSTRACT This paper reports the results of a UK study investigating the issue of differential school effectiveness. The size of overall school effects versus departmental differences in effects on 16 year old students’ General Certificate in Secondary Education performance are examined, as well as the internal (within school) consistency of departmental effects across six GCSE subject outcomes and the stability of school and departmental effects across three GCSE cohorts (1990‐1992). A value added approach is adopted, controlling for selected student intake measures (such as attainment at secondary transfer). The findings of multilevel analyses suggest that very few schools perform both consistently (across subjects) and with stability (over time). The implications of the results are discussed in relation to the publication and interpretation of schools’ examination results as well as the use of school and departmental effectiveness measures for school self‐evaluation. *Work on this paper was supported by Grant Numbers R000234130 and H53627504395 from the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council

Altering the Bias in Differential School Effectiveness Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Altering the Bias in Differential School Effectiveness Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Altering the Bias in Differential School Effectiveness Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Altering the Bias in Differential School Effectiveness Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Altering the Bias in Differential School Effectiveness Using Data Envelopment Analysis

There is evidence that many schools are differentially effective in that they promote with different effectiveness the academic attainments of different groups of pupils, divided by such characteristics as prior academic attainments, socio-economic background and so on. Awareness of the extent and direction of a school's differential effectiveness is important. Measures of overall performance of a differentially effective school can be misleading and targets seeking to improve the overall performance of such a school may not address its underlying inadequacies in raising the attainments of specific groups of pupils. This paper develops a data envelopment analysis based method for setting targets for diffentially effective schools to enable them to alter the bias of their differential effectiveness. The method also identifies role model schools which a differentially effective school can emulate in seeking to redress the imbalances in its effectiveness.

Differential School Effectiveness: results from a reanalysis of the Inner London Education Authority's Junior School Project Data

AbstractThe paper reports the results of a reanalysis of data from a major longitudinal data base (the Inner London Education Authority's (ILEA) Junior School Project). Multilevel models are used to examine the extent of differential school effectiveness for reading and mathematics at entry (year 3) and at year 5, and the impact of pupil background characteristics. Differential school effectiveness is investigated for prior attainment in the two areas and for selected background characteristics. The results reveal the existence of differential effectiveness (differential school slopes) for both measures of prior attainment. No evidence of differential effectiveness for pupils of different groups (sex, social class, ethnicity) is found. The presentation of schools' test results is also examined. Raw test averages are compared with school‐level residuals from multilevel analyses. Marked differences in schools' rank positions are found and the implications for the publication of ‘league tables’ of schools' examination and National Curriculum assessment results are discussed.

Slants on Slopes: Using Multi‐level Models to Investigate Differential School Effectiveness and its Impact on Pupils’ Examination Results

ABSTRACT Does the influence on academic progress, which a school exerts on its pupils’ achievements in public examinations, differ for pupils of differing levels of ability? The study on which this paper is based used data from a number of English local education authorities (LEAs) and showed that, in general, when finely‐differentiated measures of pupils’ prior‐attainment were employed, the rate of progress was uniform for most schools within the differing sets for which data were available, whilst the level varied substantially between schools. The analysis contrasts these findings with others where a grouped prior‐attainment measure was used, and evidence for ‘differential effectiveness’ was detected; the paper seeks to account for the substantially different conclusions to which the work leads.

Differential school effectiveness

Studies of school effectiveness are briefly reviewed, pointing to the need to study effectiveness for sub-groups within each school as well as overall. The results of a multilevel analysis of a large dataset covering the years 1985, 1986 and 1987 and using examination performance as the outcome measure are presented, revealing substantial differences between ethnic groups. The findings also show that the effectiveness of a school varies along several dimensions, and that there is also variation over time. The implications of these findings are discussed.