Project Description: Longitudinal Study of Elementary School Effectiveness for Disadvantaged Children has worked with the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study and other data to analyze various issues of school effectiveness: a review of the literature, analyses of stability and change in levels of school effectiveness and teacher behavior patterns, and an examination of the role of Chapter 1 in creating more and less effective schools.
This study aims to contribute to the body of "effective schools" research, especially as it pertains to our knowledge of effective elementary education for disadvantaged students. The study addresses several issues: (1) What do children do differently in high-effect (effective) and low-effect (ineffective) schools? (2) How stable are schooling patterns (e.g., academic learning time) in high and low-effect schools? (3) What are the roles of programs such as special education, state compensatory education, and federally funded compensatory education in determining overall school effects? To investigate these issues, the researchers conduct a literature review and a comprehensive set of analyses as part of Phases IV and V of the longitudinal Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES). This project was completed at the end of 1992.
Study Design: This study is composed of three activities: a best evidence synthesis and critical review of the literatures relating to school effectiveness; analyses conducted as part of Phase IV of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES); and analyses conducted as part of Phase V of the LSES. For the LSES Phase IV analyses, the researchers visit 16 previously identified, matched outlier elementary schools and collect the data from: (1) low and high-inference classroom observations; (2) student, teacher, and principal "school climate" questionnaires and interviews; (3) program coordination questionnaires of principals, regular teachers, Chapter 1 teachers, and special education teachers; (4) new teacher induction interviews; and (5) integrated, high-inference ratings of instructional processes at the student, teacher, and school levels. They also obtain program outcome measures including state-mandated criterion-referenced test scores, norm-referenced test scores and writing samples, Chapter 1 TIERS data, and student attendance and academic self-concept measures. Analyses are conducted to investigate the: (1) stability of school effects over time; (2) level of program coordination in more and less effective schools; (3) relationships among student, teacher, program, and school processes; (4) effects of those processes on multiple student outcomes; and (5) effects of district and state-level policies on school, classroom, and student processes and outcomes. In the LSES Phase V analyses, researchers test hypotheses regarding natural change in schools and districts in a less extensive nine-year follow-up.
Project Director: Stringfield, Samuel
Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Unit of Analysis: The unit of analysis is the school.
Generalizability: Because sample selection techniques are not described, the generalizability of findings cannot be determined.
Sample Description: The LSES sample is not described.
Dependent Variables: Dependent variables include test scores, writing samples, Chapter 1 TIERS data, student attendance, and academic self-concept measures.
Independent Variables: Independent variables include levels of program coordination, school processes and district and state level policies.
External Variables Controlled: The matching procedure for outlier schools is not described; however, it is likely to control for student achievement.
Statement of Finding(s): School effects are clearly important influences on school-level student achievement, and are especially pronounced over time. School effects predicted 13% of individual-level student achievement, while teacher effects accounted for another 11%. The cumulative effect of such contributions is substantial, especially if a student stays in a school that retains its effectiveness over time.
Description of Finding(s): About one-half of the LSES-III and LSES-IV schools retained their effectiveness status over an 8-year period. Stability was about the same for both effective and ineffective schools. Basic contextual factors -- SES, urbanicity, and grade level -- affected the success of strategies employed to make schools more effective. The importance of the principal throughout all LSES phases was more pronounced than expected. As many as one-half of the schools designated as ineffective in LSES-III were actually trying to improve; four of these were involved in naturally occurring improvement efforts while the others were involved in externally imposed efforts. There are consistent mean and variance differences between differentially effective schools across grade levels, indicating the importance of teacher effects and the need for school effects research to examine what happens in classrooms. Across all LSES phases, there was a distinct lack of meaningful influence from district offices; generally, influences were negative and/or of little import for school effectiveness. The study found several cases of schools which improved dramatically over time as well as several cases of schools that became less effective.
Are data from the study available? Yes
-###-
![[ Previous Project ]](/icons/prev.gif){kind=icon}
![[ Center Description ]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
![[ Next Project ]](/icons/next.gif){kind=icon}