1. Stability of School Effects in Secondary Education: The Impact of Variance across Subjects and Years.
- Author
-
Luyten, Hans
- Abstract
This paper reports the results of an investigation into the stability of school effects in Dutch secondary education across both years and subjects. The following research questions were addressed: (1) What percentage of the total variance in student achievement per subject can be attributed to differences between schools and to what extent are these effects stable across years? (2) To what extent are school effects stable across subjects? and (3) To what extent does the instability across years interact with the instability across subjects? Methodology involved analysis of datasets provided by the Dutch Ministry of Education and Sciences--the examination results of pre-university track students for the years 1983, 1984, and 1987; senior secondary track students for the years 1983 and 1987; and junior secondary track students for the years 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1987. The school effects per subject were found to be fairly stable across years, but schools appeared to produce remarkably divergent results across subjects. Findings also indicated a substantial interaction effect of instability across years and subjects. The results corroborate the conclusions of recent studies that stressed the important role of departments in secondary schools. The general differences between schools with respect to student achievement were very modest, accounting for no more than 4 percent of the total variance in student achievement. Two figures and one table are included. Contains 43 references. (LMI)
- Published
- 1994