Closing the Gap: Modeling within-school variance heterogeneity in school effect studies

• Published in: Asia Pacific education review Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 206 - 220
• Main Authors: Kim, Junyeop, Choi, Kilchan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-06-2008; Education Research Institute, Seoul National University; 교육연구소
• Subjects: Achievement Gap; Education; Educational Practices; Effective Schools Research; Elementary School Students; Foreign Countries; High Achievement; Mathematics Achievement; Outcomes of Education; School Culture; School Effectiveness; South Korea; Statistical Analysis; Student Characteristics; 교육학; South Korea; achievement gap; variance heterogeneity; school effect; hierarchical modeling; regression; latent variable
• ISSN: 1598-1037; 1876-407X
• DOI: 10.1007/BF03026500

Effective schools should be superior in both enhancing students’ achievement levels and reducing the gap between high- and low-achieving students in the school. However, the focus has been placed mainly on schools’ achievement levels in most school effect studies. In this article, we focused our attention upon the school-specific achievement dispersion as well as achievement level in determining effective schools. The achievement dispersion in a particular school can be captured by within-school variance in achievement (σ
2
). Assuming heterogeneous within-school variance across schools in hierarchical modeling, it is possible to identify school factors related to high achievement levels and a small gap between high- and low-achieving students. By analyzing data from the TIMMS-R, we illustrated how to detect variance heterogeneity and how to find a systematic relationship between within-school variance and school practice. In terms of our results, we found that schools with a high achievement level tended to be more homogeneous in achievement dispersion, but even among schools with the same achievement level, schools varied in their achievement dispersion, depending on classroom practices.