Abstracts - Earli

education intended to improve quality and appropriateness of provision and foster better outcomesfor children (Wales).Socially disadvantaged and ethnic minority children’s educational gap: Evolution and schooleffectsJan Van Damme, Katholic University of Leuven, BelgiumJean-Pierre Verhaeghe, Katholic University of Leuven & Ghent University, BelgiumUsing data from an ongoing large longitudinal study, we investigated the evolution in educationalgap between socially disadvantaged and ethnic minority children versus a reference group ofmainly white middle-class children. Multilevel repeated measures analyses with a categoricalclassification of pupils according to social-eco®nomical and ethnic-cultural background confirmthat with respect to mathematics achievement, home language effects tend to become smaller oreven disappear in the first grades of primary school. However, the effects of SES-relatedbackground factors appear to be persistent. Although considerable differences were found betweenschools, no particular school effects were found for the two educational gaps.Investigating the generalisability of models of educational effectiveness: A study on teacher andschool effectiveness in Mathematics and Language at pre-primary educationLeonidas Kyriakides, University of Cyprus, CyprusIn this paper, it is considered important to identify factors that explain differences in theeffectiveness of schools and teachers in relation to different criteria rather than search for criterionconsistency of school/teacher effects. It also is pointed out that although EER has generatedevidence of the school and teacher effect on student achievement at both the primary andsecondary school level, only few studies on effectiveness in early-years education have beenconducted. Thus, the study presented here attempts to identify factors of school and teachereffectiveness in mathematics and language at pre-primary education. Stratified sampling was usedto select pre-primary schools (n=76) in Cyprus. All the pupils (n=2812) who attended the last yearof pre-primary education of the school sample were chosen. Student skills in emergent literacy andmathematics were measured at the beginning and at the end of school year 2005-2006. Informationwas collected on two student background factors: sex and socio-economic status. Quality ofteaching was measured through independent observers whereas semi-structured interviews withhead teachers generate data about school policy on teaching. The effects of variables measuringquality of teaching and school policy on teaching upon language and mathematics achievement areexamined. The importance of establishing both generic and differentiated models is supported.– 10 –