Table Of ContentPolicy Implications of Research in Education 8
Leonidas Kyriakides
Bert Creemers
Evi Charalambous
Equity and
Quality
Dimensions in
Educational
Eff ectiveness
Policy Implications of Research in Education
Volume 8
Series Editors
Professor Stephen L. Jacobson, University at Buffalo – State University
of New York, USA
Paul W. Miller, University of Huddersfield, UK
Editorial Board
Prof. Helen Gunter, University of Manchester, England
Prof. Stephan Huber, University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland
Prof. Jonathan Jansen, University of the Free State, South Africa
Prof. Karen Seashore Louis, University of Minnesota, USA
Dr. Guri Skedsmo, University of Oslo, Norway
Prof. Allan Walker, Hong Kong Institute of Education
Scope of the Series
In education, as in other fields, there are often significant gaps between research
knowledge and current policy and practice. While there are many reasons for this
gap, one that stands out is that policy-makers and practitioners may simply not
know about important research findings because these findings are not published in
forums aimed at them.
Policy Implications of Research in Education aims to clearly and comprehensively
present the implications for education policy and practice drawn from important
lines of current education research in a manner that is accessible and useful for
policy-makers, educational authorities and practitioners.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11212
Leonidas Kyriakides • Bert Creemers
Evi Charalambous
Equity and Quality
Dimensions in Educational
Effectiveness
Leonidas Kyriakides Bert Creemers
Department of Education Faculty of Behavioural & Social Sciences
University of Cyprus University of Groningen
Nicosia, Cyprus Groningen, The Netherlands
Evi Charalambous
Department of Education
University of Cyprus
Nicosia, Cyprus
Policy Implications of Research in Education
ISBN 978-3-319-72064-7 ISBN 978-3-319-72066-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72066-1
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Preface
Fifteen years ago, two of us started working on the development and testing of a
model of educational effectiveness in which we made use of existing theories and
research on effectiveness. In the early days, educational effectiveness research
(EER) contributed to the debate on whether teachers and schools can contribute to
educational outcomes or whether education is unable to have any effect on promot-
ing equity. Early studies show that teachers and schools can have an effect on stu-
dent learning outcomes. These studies were also concerned with identifying ways to
help schools in disadvantaged areas to achieve learning outcomes. Gradually, this
strand of research moved on to the use of more sophisticated quantitative approaches
that took into account student background characteristics and sought to determine
the impact of schools on student progress rather than on the final learning outcomes.
One could therefore argue that EER gradually progressed to placing more emphasis
on the quality dimension of effectiveness, arguing that by promoting quality, equity
may also be achieved. We did more or less the same when we attempted to develop
the dynamic theory on educational effectiveness and test its validity by conducting
national and international studies. To promote further development in educational
effectiveness, we concentrated on the methodology and statistical techniques which
were available to test the theories in practice. However, it was even more important
to address the theory and evidence for improving educational effectiveness, which
resulted in the development and testing in educational practice of the dynamic
approach to school improvement (DASI). By examining several national and inter-
national studies undertaken during the last eight years, we were able to collect evi-
dence for the merits of DASI, which we used in our work on improving school
effectiveness and promoting teacher professional development.
Having used the dynamic approach to promote quality in education, it was time
to go back to the other main question of EER and investigate whether and how edu-
cation can reduce the variations in student learning outcomes, especially those
attributed to the students’ background characteristics (equity dimension of educa-
tional effectiveness). In this book, we provide a description of our journey and our
main findings so far. Specifically, we begin with examining how the two dimensions
v
vi Preface
of educational effectiveness, quality and equity, are related to each other, and we
discuss the importance of promoting both dimensions for the benefit of each indi-
vidual student and society in general (see Chap. 1). We then concentrate on identify-
ing the impact of student background characteristics on their learning outcomes (see
Chap. 2) and especially on how these characteristics have been specified and treated
in the history of EER (see Chap. 3). Next, in Chap. 4, we present the different meth-
odological approaches to measuring equity in education, and we discuss their use
and merits in the different educational effectiveness studies. We eventually argue for
the use of a random slope multilevel model to measure equity at classroom, school,
and system level. Suggestions for conducting longitudinal studies to identify factors
that explain changes in the effectiveness status of schools in terms of the quality
and/or equity dimension are also provided. Following the approach described in
Chap. 4, we present the results of secondary analyses of national and international
studies, which aimed to investigate the relationship between quality and equity in
education (see Chap. 5). In our attempt to encourage the further development and
use of this methodology, we demonstrate how experimental studies can be con-
ducted to find out whether and under which conditions our proposed methodology
can help schools improve their effectiveness status in terms of both the quality and
the equity dimensions. Specifically, in Chap. 6, we explicitly refer to the rationale
and the major steps in the dynamic approach to school improvement, which was
used when conducting a European experimental study aiming to promote quality
and equity in schools in socially disadvantaged areas. Subsequently, in Chap. 7, we
describe this experimental study and present its main results, which reveal the
impact that DASI can have on promoting student learning outcomes and reducing
the impact of SES on student achievement in mathematics. Finally, in Chap. 8, we
discuss the implications of what we have done so far for theory, research, policy,
and practice. The two dimensions of effectiveness (quality and equity) are both
important, and the positive message is that they are not in conflict with each other.
Educational systems, schools, and teachers can work toward achieving both dimen-
sions of effectiveness for the benefit of their students and society in general. Thus,
the book draws the attention of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to the
contribution that each school can make to promoting not only quality but also equity
and demonstrates that both quality and equity can be achieved by establishing more
sophisticated ways of measuring a school’s contribution to promoting each dimen-
sion and using an evidence-based and theory-driven approach to school
improvement.
In the writing of this book, we received support from many colleagues, profes-
sionals in schools, and our families. We would like to make a special mention of
some of them. The research assistants in our research group, and especially our
postdoctoral researchers Anastasia Panayiotou and Ioulia Televantou and our PhD
students Andria Dimosthenous and Elena Kokkinou, provided us with comments
from the perspective of young researchers in the field of educational effectiveness
and improvement. Moreover, Sheila M. Hakin not only supported us in the process
of linguistic editing, but she was also critical in helping us to clarify the meaning of
the book. Finally, our universities were supportive in facilitating our academic
Preface vii
efforts to write the book. We thank them all for their help, and we hope that they will
be pleased with the final product. Of course, any mistakes that remain are ours.
As mentioned previously, this book is a report of a long journey on equity in
education and its relationship with quality in terms of promoting student learning
outcomes. We were especially interested in discovering appropriate methods for
measuring the contribution of schools in promoting equity in education and whether
the dynamic approach to school improvement could contribute to promoting both
quality and equity in education. We have found some positive answers, but still
there are many questions left. We welcome comments, criticism, and contributions
to the further development of research on educational effectiveness and school
improvement from readers with different perspectives in education. We hope that
you can join us in our journey to make education effective and more equitable.
Nicosia, Cyprus Leonidas Kyriakides
Evi Charalambous
Groningen, The Netherlands Bert Creemers
Contents
1 Quality and Equity Dimensions of Educational Effectiveness:
An Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
1.2 M easuring School Effectiveness in Terms of Quality
and Equity: The Contribution of Educational
Effectiveness Research ...................................................................... 5
1.2.1 Student Outcomes: The Cognitive Domain
of Learning ............................................................................. 6
1.2.2 Student Outcomes: Beyond the Cognitive Domain
of Learning ............................................................................. 7
1.2.3 Dimensions of Effectiveness: Quality and Equity ................. 8
1.3 E stablishing Evaluation Mechanisms to Measure School
Effectiveness in Terms of Quality and Equity ................................... 10
1.3.1 Implicit Operational Definitions for Measuring
the Quality Dimension of School Effectiveness .................... 11
1.3.2 Establishing Evaluation Mechanisms Measuring
the Equity Dimension of Effectiveness .................................. 13
1.3.3 Use of Teacher and School Evaluation Mechanisms
for Formative Purposes .......................................................... 14
1.4 Aims and Outline of the Book ........................................................... 15
References ................................................................................................... 17
2 The Impact of Student Characteristics on Student
Achievement: A Review of the Literature ............................................... 23
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 23
2.2 T he Effect of Socioeconomic Background Factors on Student
Achievement ...................................................................................... 24
2.3 S tudent-Level Factors Beyond SES Associated with Student
Learning Outcomes Included in the Dynamic Model
of Educational Effectiveness .............................................................. 30
ix
x Contents
2.3.1 Sociocultural and Economic Background Variables
Emerging from the Sociological Perspective of EER ............ 30
2.3.2 Background Variables That Emerged
from the Psychological Perspective of EER .......................... 34
2.3.3 Variables Related to Specific Learning Tasks Emerging
from the Psychological Perspective of EER .......................... 39
2.4 Conclusions ........................................................................................ 41
References ................................................................................................... 42
3 Investigating the Quality and Equity Dimensions: A Critical
Review of Literature on Educational Effectiveness ............................... 51
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 51
3.2 H istory of Educational Effectiveness Research
and Its Attention to Quality ................................................................ 52
3.2.1 First Phase: Establishing the Field by Showing
That School Matters ............................................................... 53
3.2.2 Second Phase: Searching for Factors Associated
with Student Outcomes .......................................................... 54
3.2.3 Third Phase: Development of Theoretical Models ................ 55
3.2.4 Fourth Phase: Analysing in More Detail the Complex
Nature of Educational Effectiveness ...................................... 58
3.3 Methodological Developments Promoting Theory
and Research on the Quality Dimension of Effectiveness ................. 59
3.4 Conclusions ........................................................................................ 62
References ................................................................................................... 64
4 Methodological Approaches to Measuring Equity in Education .......... 69
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 69
4.2 A Gini-Type Index for Measuring Equity in Schools ........................ 70
4.3 I nvestigating the Impact of Student Background Factors
on Student Achievement .................................................................... 73
4.4 E xamining the Reduction of the Impact of Student
Background Factors on Student Achievement ................................... 76
4.5 Determining Differential Teacher/School Effectiveness
in Relation to Student Background Characteristics ........................... 77
4.5.1 Strengths and Limitations of the Approach Used
to Measure Differential School and Teacher Effectiveness ... 79
4.6 M easuring Changes in the Effectiveness Status of Schools
and Teachers in Promoting Quality and Equity: A Further
Extension of the Approach Used to Identify Differential Effects ...... 80
4.6.1 Searching for Stability and Changes in the Effectiveness
Status of Schools: Methods of the Study ............................... 81
4.6.2 Investigating for Stability and Changes
in the Effectiveness Status of Schools: Main Results
of the Study ............................................................................ 84
