2014 - Does it Matter Who Your Schoolmates Are? An Investigation of the Association between School Composition, School Processes and Mathematics Achievement in the Early Years of Primary Education

Attribution: Boonen, Tinneke, Speybroeck, Sara, de Bilde, Jerissa, Lamote, Carl, Van Damme, Jan, & Onghena, Patrick
Researchers: Carl LamoteJan Van DammeJerissa de BildePatrick OnghenaSara SpeybroeckTinneke Boonen
University Affiliation: KU Leuven
Email: tinneke.boonen@ppw.kuleuven.be
Research Question:
(1) What are the effects of school composition with regard to prior math achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on mathematics achievement at the end of the second grade? (2) Are there differential school composition effects? In other words: are all students affected equally by their school composition or are some specific subgroups more sensitive to their school composition than others? (3) Do certain school processes mediate the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of the second grade?
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: British Educational Research Journal
Journal Entry: Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 441-466
Year: 2014
Findings:

– The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement.
– Mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers.
– The proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non-European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home.
– Schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students’ parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students’ math achievement.
– The results of the model with all the student variables revealed that almost all of them – except for the interaction term of month of birth and being a year ahead, and school well-being – appeared to be significantly associated with math achievement at the end of second grade.

 

Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: Elementary SchoolGenderInternationalMathPeer EffectsSchool CompositionSocioeconomic StatusSTEMRegions: BelgiumInternationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Multilevel Regression Sampling Frame:Cohort of kindergarten students
Sampling Types: Nationally RepresentativeAnalysis Units: ClassroomSchoolStudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:

The data were collected in the context of the SiBO Project (the Dutch acronym for School Careers in Primary Education), which began in 2002 in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. A cohort of approximately 6000 students was followed from kindergarten (age 5- to 6-years-old) until the end of sixth grade (age 11- to12-years-old) and beyond. To make sure that the sample covers the whole range of occurring group compositions (Thruppet al., 2002), the representative sample of schools (N=120) was extended with an oversampling of schools with large proportions of low SES and/or ethnic minority students (N=48).
In the present study, data were available for 4207 students in 159 primary schools. For evident reasons, schools with missing values on all school process variables (N=9) were not included in our sample.

DV: Mathematics achievement at the end of second grade (The mathematics test, administered in May 2005, consisted of 50 items clustered into five subtests: number sense, arithmetic word problems, computational problems, number series, and measurement and geometry)

IVs include:
– Prior math achievement (achievement test at the start of first grade that consisted of 40 items clustered into four subtests: quantity comparison, seriation, counting and mathematical concepts)
– Student background variables: SES (weighted composite of five indicators including the educational and the occupational level of the mother and father and the monthly income of the family); ethnicity (as language spoken at home (1) only Dutch (language of instruction), (2) a European language except Dutch, (3) Turkish, Arabic or Berber, and (4) another non-European language); sex (‘0’ for boys and ‘1’ for girls); age ((1) month of birth, (2) year ahead, and (3) their interaction term); school well-being (four teacher-rated items, such as ‘this child enjoys most classroom activities’ with response categories ranging from ‘1’ (strongly dis-agree) to ‘6’ (strongly agree)); and self-directedness (four teacher-rated items, such as ‘this child works independently’ with identical response categories)
– School composition variables: school mean prior math achievement, school mean SES, proportion of minority students, and proportion of girls
– School process variables: Data from the school team questionnaire, administered in February 2005 to all members of the teaching staff, were used to construct school process variables. These included items on leadership and decision-making practices, cooperation, and parental involvement. Items regarding curriculum, instructional practices or academic climate were not included in this questionnaire and by extension in this study.

Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Factors related to STEM readiness
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation AbstractsK-16 STEM Abstracts