Variance In Student Achievement Research Articles

The Effect of Sample Weighting on Hierarchical Linear Modeling in the Large-Scale Assessment Data

This study examines how the different uses of sampling weights in the analysis of TIMSS 2019 data affect the ratio of variance in student achievement explained by schools and the estimation of standard errors. The research sample comprises 227,345 8th grade students from 7,636 schools in 39 countries. Mathematics achievement and science achievement are considered separately as dependent variables in all 39 countries. All plausible values are included in the analysis. Four weighting scenarios are examined: no weighting, weighting at only level 1, weighting at only level 2, and weighting at both levels. In total, 312 models are established and examined. According to the research results, the coefficients, standard errors, reliabilities, and χ^2 estimations change depending on how the weighting variable is handled in the models, and as a result, the ratio of variance in the dependent variable arising from the differences between schools also changes. The ratio attributable to between-school differences can reach up to 20% in some countries. Therefore, researchers modeling hierarchical data using HLM are suggested to plan how they handle the weighting variable prior to conducting the study.

Teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of school emphasis on academic success: measurement invariance, agreement, and relations to student achievement

A school’s emphasis on academic success (SEAS) is a crucial aspect of school climate that can be rated by different informants, such as teachers or principals, and with respect to their perception of different groups’ emphasis on academic success, such as parents or students. We know little about whether there is agreement between these ratings. Utilizing Israeli Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data and multilevel structural equation modeling, we examined how teachers and principals rate teachers’, students’, and parents’ emphasis on academic success and how these ratings are related to student achievement. We found that (a) ratings are invariant across informants; (b) teachers and principals agree on parents’ and students’ yet not teachers’ emphasis; (c) teacher ratings explain more variation in student achievement than principal ratings. Since SEAS ratings diverge by informants and relations to student achievement, researchers need to craft validity arguments in their studies.

The potential of following-up international large-scale assessment studies: using PISA 2018 to develop a comprehensive model of effective teaching

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the potential of using international large-scale assessment studies for conducting follow-up studies testing models of educational effectiveness. The impact of teacher factors coming from the dynamic model of educational effectiveness and the dialogic education theory on student literacy achievement is examined. Modern Greek teachers from secondary schools that participated in PISA 2018 (Accessed on https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/pisa2018technicalreport/) in Cyprus were recruited. Two Grade 11 classes per teacher were selected, giving 392 students in total. Observation data from Greek lessons and student literacy achievement data were collected. Two multilevel regression analyses were conducted: one with the whole student sample and one with only students from whom PISA prior achievement measure was identified. When prior achievement (i.e., PISA measure) was considered, additional and larger effects of factors on student final achievement were detected. Both analyses reveal that when factors from both frameworks were considered, larger variance in student achievement was explained.

Academically resilient students: searching for differential teacher effects in mathematics

ABSTRACT This paper examines the extent to which teacher factors of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness can explain variation in student achievement in mathematics. It also searches for the extent to which any of these factors matters more for academically resilient students than for all the other low-socioeconomic-status students. Participants were all teachers (N = 66) of 14 schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas who teach mathematics to students of Grades 4–6 (N = 904). Teacher factors were measured through a student questionnaire, whereas mathematics achievement at the beginning and the end of the school year was measured through written tests. Student background characteristics were measured through a student questionnaire. Information on parents’ occupational status was also collected. Multilevel modelling analysis revealed that all teacher factors explain variation in mathematics achievement. Differential effects for all factors but modelling and assessment were identified. Implications of findings are discussed.

Students’ Motivation in Learning English: A Study in Senior High School in Indonesia

One of the major things that university students have to go through is the learning activity. Achieving one's goals is believed to have a strong correlation with motivation. English proficiency is influenced by pupils' intrinsic willingness to study the language. The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a correlation between the level of interest that second graders at SMA Negeri 2 Sidrap have in studying English and their actual academic performance. The results demonstrated a strong relationship between students' motivation to study English and their actual progress in doing so. The results of the students' English proficiency exam and their motivational surveys corroborated this. Initially, the computed r-value, which was determined using the SPSS 21 Program, was greater than the table value at the 5% and 1% significant levels, or 0.367 < 0.852 > 0.47. Furthermore, when looking at the correlation between student motivation and English language proficiency, it was found that, for the sample class, 72.59% of the variance in student achievement was attributable to student motivation (variable X), while 25.41% was impacted by other factors.

Effect of Professional Learning Communities on Student Achievement at the Secondary School Level

The study examined the effect of professional learning communities (PLC) on the achievement of students. PLC is about developing collaborative learning among colleagues to enhance the performance of an organization within a specific environment. Student achievement has defined the performance of students which can be evaluated with the help of tests. Data were gathered from SSTs (N=890) involving three districts (Sheikhupura, Kasur, and Lahore) through a multistage sampling technique. The study adopted the Professional Learning Communities Assessment (PLCA) scale to examine the PLC which was developed by Olivier et al. (2010). Student achievement scores were obtained from their respective schools based on BISE results of 10th grade. The study found that teachers strongly agreed that they were part of PLC in their institutions. The study also found a moderate and significant relationship between both PLC and student achievement (r=.71), and a 41% variance in student achievement could be explained with the help of PLC. Overall, female teachers were found better than male teachers, while urban teachers were better than urban teachers for being part of PLC. The recommendations were also added to the given study.

Variation in Student Achievement: Effects of NCLB on Standards-based Accountability in Arizona

Over the years, the United States government has assumed a larger role in educational policy. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is one of the most notable examples of an increase in federal involvement in education. Through the creation of accountability systems, NCLB required states to test in reading and mathematics. Prior research has maintained that states with pre-existing test-based accountability remained relatively unchanged by the passage of the Act. States without test-based accountability measures pre-NCLB may have been more likely to be affected by its implementation (e.g., Arizona). In order to test this claim, I examined student achievement in Arizona pre-, during, and post-NCLB under AZ LEARNS and the A-F Accountability System over certain years (1996, 2000, 2005, 2009, and 2015). Through the use of data from the Nation’s Report Card and the Arizona Department of Education, I sought to answer two key questions: (1) How do Arizona’s achievement scores pre-, during, and post-NCLB compare to other accountability types? and (2) In what way do Arizona school ratings vary during and after NCLB? By conducting a series of independent sample t-tests, I compared Arizona’s state scale scores to states with moderate accountability, and I compared school ratings under the accountability systems. These analyses reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference associated with school ratings under the two accountability systems, therefore supporting the prior stated claim. The results offer insight into Arizona’s accountability and are valuable for future evidence-based policymaking.

Relationship Between Teachers’ Motivation, Attitude and Students’ Academic Achievement in Senior Secondary Schools in Bauchi Metropolis

This study investigated the influence of teachers' motivation and teachers’ attitudes, on students’ academic achievement in secondary schools in Bauchi metropolis in Bauchi state, Nigeria. Correlational research design was used. Teachers’ Motivation Questionnaire (TMQ), and Teachers’ Attitude Questionnaire (TAQ) were adapted and used for the research study. Three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The statistical tools used were Multiple Regression Analysis and Pearson's Product Moment correlation coefficient. The participants in this study were made up of 191 teachers and purposively selected from the population of 382 teachers of English and Civic Education across 26 senior secondary schools in Bauchi metropolis. Multiple regression analysis discovered that there is a significant positive relationship among teachers' motivation, teachers' attitudes and students’ academic achievement (f= +13061, p<0.05), and also shows that 12 percent of variance in student achievement is contributed by teachers' motivation and teacher attitudes scores (R2= +0.122). The results further revealed a significant relationship between the motivation of teachers and students’ academic achievement (r= +0.304, p<0.05), and there is significant relationship between teachers' attitudes and students’ academic achievement (r= +0.243, p<0.05). The study recommends among others that, teachers should be motivated by government and education stakeholders in order to improve teachers’ attitudes toward teaching and students’ academic achievement.

Estimating the Importance of Families in Modeling Educational Achievement Using Linked Swedish Administrative Data

While the family is a critical determinant of educational achievement, methodological difficulties and the availability of data limit estimation of the family contribution in school effectiveness models. This study uses multilevel modeling to estimate the proportion of variation in student educational achievement between families, family-level intraclass correlation coefficients, and specific family structure effects (family size, birth order, birth spacing, sibling sex ratio). We use cross-classified random effects to account for school and neighborhood variation. We analyze Swedish administrative education records linked with birth records for four academic cohorts of students, with siblings identified from a wider pool of 21 cohorts. We show that almost half of the variation in student achievement described as “between students” in traditional school effectiveness studies would be better described as variation “between families,” suggesting effectiveness research might give greater consideration to family-based interventions in tandem with existing student- and school-based approaches to raising low achievement.

The Possible Differences between Learning Styles Used by Russian, English, French, and Arabic Language Learners

One of the most enduring effects on education has been the search for individual differences that can explain and predict variation in student achievement, with the hope that pedagogical methods can be designed that will capitalize on these. Among the individual differences, ‘Learning styles’ remain a popular choice for filling this role and the number of models of learning styles on offer continues to proliferate. Learning styles are said to be influential factors, in learning a second or foreign language. Despite the fact that there are lots of papers published in this area, but comparing the learning styles employed by those who are learning different foreign languages seems to be untouched. Therefore, in this study we try to address this gap, by comparing the learning styles used by Russian, English, French, and Arabic who are learning these languages as their foreign language. A number of 100 Iranian students took part in this study. They are between 18 to 20 years of age. They were divided into four groups, each including 25 members. The Ehrman and Leaver Learning Style Questionnaire (E&L) was distributed among the language learners. The finding of the study revealed that these four groups of language learners made use of learning styles differently. And also, there are significant differences between Russian, Arabic, English, and French language learners in terms of employing learning strategies.

Organizational characteristics of successful and failing schools: a theoretical framework for explaining variation in student achievement

ABSTRACT Why do some schools bring forth high achievement levels, whereas others do not? To understand the mechanisms behind school success, one must examine schools as organizations and the social relations and interactions among their members. By integrating the literature on educational effectiveness and sociological institutionalism, this article presents a study of four successful and four failing schools in Sweden regarding the impact of schools’ internal organization on student achievement. The results demonstrate that the two types of schools have distinct organizational characteristics, which show significant stability over time. Linking organizational characteristics and student outcomes, we argue that (a) the varying social reality of teachers and principals among the two types of schools fosters different types of actions and beliefs among teachers and principals, which (b) causes different learning environments for students that subsequently lead to variations in their learning trajectories.

Factors affecting 12th‐grade students' physics achievement

AbstractThe current study aimed to determine and predict 12th‐grade students' physics achievement in terms of some selected cognitive, physics‐related effective, personal, and socioeconomic characteristics in Turkey. Four hundred and ninety‐six students (273 female and 223 male) from 18 high schools formed the study group. Findings indicated that cognitive characteristics including science achievement and physics course grades explained the largest amount of variance (60.6%) in the achievement by itself. Physics interest and physics motivation as well as gender and perception of teacher‐directed activities also explained a small amount of variance in student achievement. Although none of the socioeconomic characteristic variables were found to be significant, the entire model accounted for 64% of the variance in physics achievement.

Student achievement in primary education: region matters more than school

ABSTRACT This paper provides evidence on the differences among Spanish regions, regardless of other factors, in student achievement – in Language, Mathematics, Science and Citizenship – of fourth graders. This is the first paper in Spain that analyses these differences for Primary Education in all Spanish autonomous communities. The data in the Spanish General Diagnostic Assessment of 2009, by means of descriptive analyses and estimation of multilevel regressions, led us to show that, beyond differences between and within schools, variation in student achievement in Spain is even larger between regions than schools. Furthermore, regions with a co-official language produce worse results than others, especially in Science.

Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking

Patience and risk-taking – two cultural traits that steer intertemporal decision-making – are fundamental to human capital investment decisions. To understand how they contribute to international differences in student achievement, we combine PISA tests with the Global Preference Survey. We find that opposing effects of patience (positive) and risk-taking (negative) together account for two-thirds of the cross-country variation in student achievement. In an identification strategy addressing unobserved residence-country features, we find similar results when assigning migrant students their country-of-origin cultural traits in models with residence-country fixed effects. Associations of culture with family and school inputs suggest that both may act as channels.

Culture and Student Achievement: The Intertwined Roles of Patience and Risk-Taking

Patience and risk-taking – two cultural traits that steer intertemporal decision-making – are fundamental to human capital investment decisions. To understand how they contribute to international differences in student achievement, we combine PISA tests with the Global Preference Survey. We find that opposing effects of patience (positive) and risk-taking (negative) together account for two-thirds of the cross-country variation in student achievement. In an identification strategy addressing unobserved residence-country features, we find similar results when assigning migrant students their country-of-origin cultural traits in models with residence-country fixed effects. Associations of culture with family and school inputs suggest that both may act as channels.

Multilevel analysis of the relationship between school-level variables and student achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between student achievement and a set of school-level variables, including distributed leadership, academic optimism, teacher collaboration and enabling school structure. The study was designed as correlational research. A Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis was conducted with a data set collected from 23,053 students and 426 teachers from 40 randomly selected public schools in Turkey. The data were collected using previously developed scales and student achievement data from the Ministry of National Education. HLM results revealed that two dimensions of academic optimism – namely collective efficacy and trust in clients – and hindering bureaucracy significantly predicted between-school differences in student achievement. The tested HLM model explained 60% of the variation in student achievement across schools. The results revealed that student achievement is shaped by school-level variables that are tied to the structural and functional characteristics of schools in Turkey. However, these school characteristics are rooted in the societal structures and cultural characteristics of the country. Hence, it is concluded that a reinterpretation of common school-level variables used to predict student achievement in the contexts of different countries is necessary.

School District Contributions to Students' Math and Language Achievement

Conducted in British Columbia, this mixed-methods study tested the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored conditions that mediate the effects of such characteristics, and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement. Semistructured interview data from 37 school administrators provided qualitative data. Quantitative data were provided by the responses of 998 school and district leaders’ in 21 districts to two surveys. Student achievement data were district-level results of elementary and secondary student provincial math and language test scores. All nine district characteristics contributed significantly to student achievement. Three conditions served as especially powerful mediators of such district effects. The same conditions, as well as others, acted as significant mediators of school-level leader effects on achievement. This is among the few large-scale mixed-methods studies identifying characteristics of districts explaining variation in student achievement.

Singapore’s School Excellence Model and student learning: evidence from PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013

ABSTRACTThis study examines the relationship between key elements of the School Excellence Model (SEM) and student achievement in reading, mathematics and science as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, using a sample of 166 schools in Singapore. Strategies, quality and resources are identified as school-level dimensions commonly involved in the SEM to select variables in PISA 2012 and TALIS 2013. A multilevel data analysis was conducted using hierarchical linear modelling. The results indicate that a triangulated school strategy focused on strengthening teacher participation, principal commitment and school responsibility has significant relationships with student performance. In particular, teachers’ instructional improvement contributed to student achievement, while teacher ratio to support teaching staff accounts for the largest variance in student achievement. Finally, school extra-curricular activities promote well-rounded student development that enhances learning achievement. Findings highlight the importance of school-based accountability that empowers teachers, in building school capacity for student achievement.

Do smaller schools really reduce the “power rating” of poverty?

The percentage of variance in student achievement that is explained by student SES—“poverty’s power rating,” as some call it—tends to be less among smaller schools than among larger schools. Smaller schools, we are told, are able to somehow disrupt the association between SES and student achievement. Using eighth-grade data for 215 public schools in Maine, I explored the hypothesis that this finding is in part a statistical artifact of the lower reliability of school-aggregated student achievement in smaller schools. This hypothesis was supported for mathematics achievement but seemingly not for reading achievement. Implications are discussed.

Academic culture: a promising mediator of school leaders’ influence on student learning

PurposeThis study is a quantitative exploration of a new construct the authors label as “academic culture (AC).” Treating it as generalized latent variable composed of academic press (AP), disciplinary climate (DC), and teachers’ use of instructional time, the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of this construct to be a key mediator of school leaders’ influence on student learning. The study is guided by three hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachResponses by 856 elementary teachers from 70 schools to an online survey measured the three components of AC along with school leadership (SL). Provincial tests of writing, reading, and math were used as measures of student achievement (SA). Social economic status (SES) was used as control variable for the study. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics and correlations were calculated among all variables. Analyses included intra-class correlation analysis, regression equations, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.FindingsEvidence confirmed the study’s three hypotheses: first, AP, DC, and instructional time formed a general latent construct, AC; second, AC explained a significant proportion of the variance in SA, controlling for student SES; and third, AC was a significant mediator of SL’s influence on SA. Concepts and measures of academic optimism (AO) and AC are compared in the paper and implications for practice and future research are outlined.Originality/valueThis first study of AC explored the relationship between AC and SA. Although at least two AO studies have included measures of distributed leadership, minimal attention has been devoted to actually testing the claim that AO is amenable to the influence of explicit leadership practices (as distinct from enabling school structures) and is a powerful mediator of SL effects on student learning. Addressing this limitation of AO research to date, the present study included a well-developed measure of leadership practices and assessed the value of AC as a mediator of such practices.