Abstracts - Earli

O 1801 September 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 1.60SymposiumSchool Environment and its impact on student’s competencesChair: Katharina Maag Merki, University of Education, GermanyChair: Brigitte Steinert, German Institut of International Educational Resea, GermanyOrganiser: Katharina Maag Merki, University of Education, GermanyDiscussant: Eckhard Klieme, German Institut of International Educational Resea, GermanyStudies in school effectiveness research have highlighted the impact of school and classroomfactors on students´ competences. In spite of studies which have found many correlations betweencharacteristics of school environment and students´ competences, there is a lack of studies withlongitudinal and multilevel designs which analyses the effects of school and classroom factors onstudents´ outcomes over time. The aim of this symposium is to examine the impact of school andclassroom factors on students’ domain specific and cross curricular competences. The variouscontributions to the symposium apply different research strategies. Besides longitudinal analyses,which describe the development of various student outcomes and their interrelation at individualand school level over time, the symposium includes studies that use multilevel analyses (school,classroom, individual level) and structural equation modeling. The results of the studies presentedin the symposium give insights into the dimensionality of some school and teaching characteristicsand their structure as pattern of instructional context. The findings can serve as basis for furtherinvestigations with extended longitudinal or experimental design and for further schoolimprovement activities.“The impact of the instructional context in schools on students’ language achievement in GermanyBrigitte Steinert, German Institut of International Educational Resea, GermanySchool effectiveness research has identified various characteristics of schools that account fordifferences in students´ outcomes between schools. As a result, school development research hashighlighted the characteristics that are malleable by teachers. Particularly, the concept ofprofessional learning communities aims to characteristics for school improvement: focus onstudent learning, shared norms and values, collaboration, reflective dialog, de-privatization ofpractice. Therefore, this contribution investigates the dimensionality of goal and achievementorientations and different contents and forms of cooperation among teaching staff and their impacton students´ language achievement. Data base for the analyses was the large scale assessmentstudy DESI (German English Student Achievement International) consisting of a representativesample of 10543 students and 219 schools. DESI investigated a range of language competencesboth in German and English at grade 9. Two-level structural equation modeling with Mplus wasapplied to the data. The analyses identify three different constructs of instructional context basedon the perceptions of staff: anticipation of students´ language achievement, the emphasis onstudents´ language competences, cooperation. The impact of these dimensions depends on theinvestigated criterion for language competences. Concerning the cumulative outcomes at the endof grade 9 the anticipation of language achievement is positively correlated with students´achievement in German as well as in English. The cooperative practice among staff is negativelycorrelated with students´ achievement in English. The emphasis on language competences by staffenhances the increase in students´ language competences above all.– 817 –