School Effectiveness Research - IPDK 2015

What makes a school effec$ve?
Anindito Aditomo, Ph.D
Fakultas Psikologi, Universitas Surabaya

Which of these ma@er?
class size
per pupil
expenditure
teachers with
teaching
cerEficaEon
teachers with
an advanced
degree
frequent
teacher
feedback
data driven
instrucEon
safe
environment
home-­‐school
relaEonships
increased
instrucEonal
Eme
high
expectaEons for
student success
clear school
mission
instrucEonal
leadership

1. InstrucEonal Leadership
• “… the principal acts as an instruc$onal leader
and effecEvely and persistently communicates
the mission of the school to staff, parents, and
students.
• the principal understands and applies the
characterisEcs of instruc$onal effec$veness in
the management of the instrucEonal
program.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from edutopia.org)

2. Clear and Focused Mission
• … “there is a clearly ar$culated mission of the
school through which the staff shares an
understanding of and a commitment to the
school’s goals, prioriEes, assessment
procedures, and accountability.
• The staff in the effecEve school accepts
responsibility for the students’ learning of the
essenEal curricular goals.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from
edutopia.org)

3. Safe and Orderly Environment
• … “there is an orderly, purposeful, business-­like
atmosphere, which is free from the threat
of physical harm. The school climate is not
oppressive and is conducive to teaching and
learning. (Lezo@e, n.d., from edutopia.org)

4. High ExpectaEons
• … “the staff believes and demonstrates that all
students can obtain mastery of the school’s
essenEal curriculum.
• They also believe that they, the staff, have the
capability to help all students obtain that
mastery.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from edutopia.org)

5. Frequent Monitoring of Student
Learning Progress
• “… pupil progress over the essenEal objecEves
are measured frequently, monitored
frequently, and the results of those
assessments are used to improve the
individual student behaviors and
performances, as well as to improve the
curriculum as a whole.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from
edutopia.org)

6. PosiEve Home-­‐School RelaEons
• “In the effecEve school, parents understand
and support the basic mission of the school
and are given opportuniEes to play important
roles in helping the school to achieve its
mission.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from edutopia.org)

7. Opportunity to Learn, Time on Task
• “… teachers allocate a significant amount of
classroom Eme to instrucEon in the essenEal
curricular areas. For a high percentage of this
Eme, students are acEvely engaged in whole-­class
or large group, teacher-­‐directed, planned
learning acEvity.” (Lezo@e, n.d., from
edutopia.org)

Dobbie & Fryer (2012)
• schools with more cerEfied teachers have
annual math gains that are 0.041 (0.023)
standard deviaEons lower than other schools.
• Schools with more teachers with a masters
degree have annual ELA gains that are 0.032
(0.020) standard deviaEons lower.

• schools that give formal or informal feedback
ten or more Emes per semester have annual
math gains that are 0.048σ (0.023) higher and
annual ELA gains that are 0.044σ (0.014)
higher than other schools.

• Schools that tutor students at least four days a
week in groups of six or less have annual ELA
gains that are 0.040σ (0.020) higher.

• Schools that add 25 percent or more
instrucEonal Eme have annual gains that are
0.050σ (0.013) higher in math.

• Schools that have high academic and
behavioral expectaEons have annual math
gains that are 0.044σ (0.023) higher and ELA
gains that are 0.030σ (0.015) higher.

LimitaEons of School EffecEveness Research

West, et. al. (2014). What effecEve schools do.
• Do schools that succeed in raising test scores do so by
improving their students’ underlying cogniEve
capaciEes?
• a sample of more than 1,300 8th graders a@ending 32
public schools in Boston, including tradiEonal public
schools, exam schools that admit only the city’s most
academically talented students, and charter schools.
• In addiEon to the state test scores typically used by
educaEon researchers, we also gathered several
measures of the cogniEve abiliEes psychologists refer
to as fluid cogniEve skills

• The correlaEons between our measures of
fluid cogniEve skills and 8th-­‐grade math test
scores are posiEve and staEsEcally significant,
ranging from 0.27 for working memory to 0.53
for fluid reasoning.
• The correlaEon between math test scores and
our summary measure of fluid cogniEve ability
is 0.58.

• we find that the school a student a@ends can
explain a substanEal share of the overall variaEon
in test scores: that single factor explains 34
percent of the variaEon in math scores and 24
percent of the variaEon for reading.
• In contrast, aher accounEng for prior
achievement and demographics, the school
a@ended explains just 2.3 percent of our
summary measure of fluid cogniEve ability.

• the schools that are most effecEve in raising
student test scores do so in spite of the
strength of the underlying relaEonship
between math achievement and fluid
cogniEve skills. In other words, these schools
have figured out ways to raise students’
academic achievement well above what is
expected given the students’ baseline fluid
cogniEve skills.

• Among students who fell below the midway
point on our summary measure of fluid
cogniEve ability, only 20 percent of those
a@ending a district school were deemed
proficient in math as defined by
Massachuse@s on its 8th-­‐grade math test. In
oversubscribed charter schools, 71 percent of
such students were deemed proficient.