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Previous studies have indicated that, although some teachers have substantial expectation effects on student outcomes, the effects for most teachers are only small. Furthermore, teacher expectations are associated with key pedagogical differences related to teacher beliefs about providing instruction and support for learning. The aim of this study was to explore (a) teacher-level differences in the level and differentiation of expectations, (b) associations between teacher differences in expectations and teacher background and beliefs, and (c) relationships with subsequent student performance. Secondary analyses were performed on data for 42 teachers and their students in New Zealand. The results were supportive of the notion that some teachers were differentiating more between students in their expectations than others. Teachers who differentiated more perceived students generally as more competent, but felt less related to the school team, and perceived more classroom stress. Differentiation in expectations was negatively related to end-of-year mathematics scores.

This study provides a systematic review of the effects of 19 teacher expectation interventions. Prior research on teacher expectations primarily focussed on correlational relationships with student and teacher characteristics, leaving open the questions of whether it is possible to raise teacher expectations and to prevent (too) low expectations from having detrimental effects on student achievement. These questions were the scope of the current review. We distinguished 3 types of interventions: changing teacher behaviour, creating awareness of expectancy effects, and addressing the beliefs underlying the expectations. The results indicated that it was possible to raise teacher expectations and subsequent student achievement. We found summary effects of Hedges' g = 0.38 and 0.30, respectively. The narrative review suggested that the intervention type did not affect the effectiveness, but teacher support for the intervention did. However, verification of this suggestion with moderator analysis was not possible due to the limited number of interventions.

The self-reported grades Dutch, English and Math of 13,970 students in the third grade of Dutch secondary education (US grade 9) were investigated with regard to educational track-level and dominant achievement goal (DAG). The performance approach goal group scored significantly higher on all three subjects than the performance avoidance group, the mastery approach group, the mastery avoidance group and the group without a DAG. In addition, the differences between the performance approach group and the other groups with regard to the three school subjects were of the same size, suggesting that the DAG is associated with the same processes across various school subjects. The magnitude of the differences between the other DAG groups, however, decreased with decreasing track level, suggesting that the DAGs' adaptive value varies systematically with ability level.

Little is known about factors other than students' abilities and background variables that shape teachers' achievement expectations. This study was aimed at investigating the role of teachers' perceptions of students attributes (working habits, popularity, self-confidence, student--teacher relationships, and classroom behavior) in shaping teachers' expectations. The sample analyzed consisted of 5316 students and 469 classes in grade 6 in Dutch primary education. Teachers had higher expectations for students who they perceived as self-confident and having positive work habits. Differences in expectations between boys and girls could partly be explained by the teachers' perceptions of students' work habits. Teachers differed in the extent to which they let their perceptions of student attributes shape their expectations.

The dominant achievement goals (DAGs) of 7,008 students in the third grade of Dutch secondary education (US grade 9) were investigated, based on Elliot & McGregors' 2 × 2 framework (2001), in relation to track-level and motivational variables. We found the mastery-approach goal and the performance-approach goal, generally considered adaptive, to be more prominent among students in lower tracks. In contrast, avoidance goals were more common in higher tracks. Most notably, in the highest track, the mastery-avoidance goal was the most prominent. Additionally, we found that students with a dominant performance-approach goal scored highest on almost all motivational variables examined; students without a DAG scored mostly second highest. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Background: In several tracked educational systems, realizing optimal placements in classes in the first year of secondary education depends on the accuracy of teacher expectations. Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate between-teacher differences in their expectations regarding the academic aptitude of their students. Sample: The sample consisted of 500 teachers (classes) who provided their expectations of 7,550 students in the final grade of Dutch primary education. Methods: We analysed the extent to which teachers differed in their expectations and in what contexts their expectations were biased, using multilevel random slope models. Results: Multilevel analysis showed teacher expectation bias to be related to gender and socio-ethnic background of students. The differences among teachers in expectations for Turkish, Moroccan, and other foreign students with low-educated parents were larger than the average teacher expectation bias for these groups in the sample. When student characteristics were controlled for, we found that the teachers in our sample had higher expectations for students in high-performing classes or classes with only a small proportion of students from low-SES families. Teacher expectation bias for demographic groups, however, was found to be independent of the class population. Conclusions: The results indicate the importance of the teacher and the necessity of using multilevel models when investigating the complex nature of between-teacher differences in expectations of student performance.

In many countries, policy makers struggle with the development of value-added indicators of school performance for educational accountability purposes and in particular with the choice whether school context measured in the form of student composition variables should be included. This study investigates differences between 7 empirical studies that have looked at changes in value-added indicators through the inclusion of school composition variables. Differences were found in the strength of the association between Type A (student-level covariates) and Type B (student- and school-level covariates) school effect models in various regions, varying between 0.74 and 0.99 for secondary education. Important differences were found between the estimate of a school's effectiveness by using a Type A or a Type B value-added model in secondary education in The Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, and Australia and in US and UK primary education. However, few differences were found in other cases.

Estimating added value as an indicator of school effectiveness in the context of educational accountability often occurs using test or examination scores of students. This study investigates the possibilities for using scores of educational positions as an alternative indicator. A number of advantages of a value added indicator based on educational positions of students can be formulated, such as: (a) the societal significance of educational position as output measure; (b) the fact that a single indicator can be estimated for an entire school in a differentiated educational system, where not all schools provide education in all tracks; and (c) the expectation that value added based on educational positions leads to other incentives for schools than value added based on test scores. Empirical analysis of Dutch cohort data (VOCL'99) for secondary education showed considerable differences in effectiveness between schools in the positions of students. Furthermore, differential school effects were found for both socio-economic status and prior achievement. The phenomena of differential school effects for socio-economic status and prior achievement are linked to differences between schools in the kind of tracks in which the schools provide schooling.

In traditional studies on value-added indicators of educational effectiveness, students are usually treated as belonging to those schools where they took their final examination. However, in practice, students sometimes attend multiple schools and therefore it is questionable whether this assumption of belonging to the last school they attended can be made. Furthermore, the schools attended earlier by students might have long-term effects on their subsequent performance. Using data from Dutch primary and secondary schools, multiple membership models and cross classification multilevel models were estimated to explore the effects of student mobility and long-term primary school effects on the estimated value added of secondary schools. Long-term effects of primary schools did not change the estimated value added of secondary schools. On the other hand, allowing students to be a member of multiple secondary schools changed the estimated effectiveness of these schools especially for schools in the middle range of effectiveness. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

This study investigates the possibilities of estimating value added as a performance indicator in senior secondary vocational education. Value added is interesting in this context because it is considered as a reliable tool for comparing the effectiveness of educational institutions. Although value added indicators have been developed since the 1980s for both primary and secondary educations, the research on school effectiveness has largely neglected vocational education because of its complexity. For estimating value added in this study, data concerning almost 90,000 students in Dutch senior secondary vocational education are used. Factors such as ethnicity, living in problematic neighbourhoods and students' prior educational attainment appear to be significant predictors of student outcomes. The results indicate considerable differences in the effectiveness among clusters of training programmes, whereas there are hardly any differences between the educational institutions. Of the total variance among the student outcomes, 14% is related to the training programme clusters. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

Accountability systems in education generally include indicators of student performance. However, these indicators often differ considerably among the various systems. More and more countries try to include value-added measures, mainly because they do not want to hold schools accountable for differences in their initial intake of students. This study presents a conceptual framework of these value-added measures, resulting in an overview of 5 different types. Using data from Dutch secondary schools, we empirically provide estimates of these different measures. Our analyses show that the correlation between the different types of school effects estimated is rather high, but that the different models implicate different results for individual schools. Based on theoretical considerations, arguments are given to use the following indicators in the value-added accountability models: prior achievement, student-level background characteristics, and compositional characteristics of the student population. (Contains 2 notes and 9 tables.)