1st Edition

Educational Effectiveness Theory Further developments in a multilevel context

    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    134 Pages
    by Routledge

    Despite the advances in educational effectiveness theory and methodology in the last 20 years, important questions and issues remain unresolved. In particular, existing theoretical frameworks of educational effectiveness are only able to describe the interrelationship among factors at the system, school, classroom, and student levels and their cross-level interdependency in a very general manner. Additionally, although a large number of studies provide empirical evidence of the impact of single factors and factor constellations on student learning, the embedding of the empirically identified results in theoretical models of educational effectiveness has to be carried out more systematically in order to develop more elaborated theories of educational effectiveness.

    The aim of this book is to contribute to the advancement of educational effectiveness theory by discussing different strategies: including alternative theoretical models to understand educational in/effectiveness, extending the methodology to analyze processes and mechanisms of educational in/effectiveness, analyzing differential effects of processes and instruments on educational in/effectiveness, carrying out complex multivariate analyses considering manifest and latent variables, and combining theory and practice in real school situations. Taken together, the strategies presented in this book make it clear that the advancement of educational effectiveness theory depends on the advancement of educational effectiveness methodology, or in other words: from theory to methodology and from empirical evidence back to theory. This book was originally published as a special issue of School Effectiveness and School Improvement.

    Preface: System effectiveness and improvement: the importance of theory and context Alma Harris, Donnie Adams, Michelle Suzette Jones and Vasu Muniandy

    Introduction: Further development of educational effectiveness theory in a multilevel context: from theory to methodology and from empirical evidence back to theory Katharina Maag Merki, Marcus Emmerich and Monika Holmeier

    1. Theories on educational effectiveness and ineffectiveness Jaap Scheerens

    2. Does accountability pressure through school inspections promote school improvement? Herbert Altrichter and David Kemethofer

    3. Comparability of semester and exit exam grades: long-term effect of the implementation of state-wide exit exams Katharina Maag Merki and Monika Holmeier

    4. Phantom effects in school composition research: consequences of failure to control biases due to measurement error in traditional multilevel models Ioulia Televantou, Herbert W. Marsh, Leonidas Kyriakides, Benjamin Nagengast, John Fletcher and Lars-Erik Malmberg

    5. Developing, testing, and using theoretical models for promoting quality in education Bert Creemers and Leonidas Kyriakides

    Biography

    Katharina Maag Merki is Professor of Educational Science at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her main interests include research on educational governance, school effectiveness and school development, and self-regulated learning. She is cofounder and co-coordinator of the Special Interest Group "Educational Evaluation, Accountability and School Improvement" of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.

    Marcus Emmerich is Professor for Educational Sciences with a focus on inclusion, diversity and heterogeneity at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany. His theoretical and empirical research focuses on education inequality, school development, and educational governance.

    Monika Holmeier is a Postdoctoral Researcher for Research Methods in the Centre for Science and Technology Education, School for Teacher Education, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Switzerland. Her research is focused on science education, assessment, equity, and inquiry-based learning. She is the author of the book Grading in State-wide Exit Exams (2013) and has published articles in academic books and journals.