The study examined the extent that teacher-student relationships (TSR) influenced basic psychological needs, engagement, and student growth using the self-systems process model as a framework using structural equation modeling. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that context (TSR) influenced self (basic psychological needs), which…

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the effect of internal school factors such as school violence and class size, and external school factors such as family socio-economic resources on student math achievements, based on the social ecological model, eliciting an integrative approach. Data were collected from an Israeli national database,…

We study whether changes in school emphasis on academic success (SEAS) and safe schools (SAFE) may explain the increased science performance in Norway between TIMSS 2007 and 2011. Two-level structural equation modelling (SEM) of merged TIMSS data was used to investigate whether changes in levels of SEAS and SAFE mediate the changes in science…

This study explored the relationship between the reading ability and science achievement of students in grades 5, 8, and 9. Reading ability was assessed with four measures: word recognition, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and comprehension (23% of all passages were on science topics). Science achievement was assessed with state…

Extensive support for the seemingly paradoxical negative effects of school- and class-average achievement on academic self-concept (ASC)-the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE)--is based largely on secondary students in Western countries or on cross-cultural Program for International Student Assessment studies. There is little research testing the…

Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

Student self-report data from 933 Black middle school students and standardized mathematics test scores (SAT-10) were used to examine the relationship among student perceptions of teacher expectations and reform instructional practices, aspects of student motivation, and three student mathematics performance outcomes--time spent studying, expected…

Given the increased risk factors in the transition from middle school to high school, this study tracked academic and school discipline records for students receiving general and special education services as they transitioned from Grade 8 to Grade 9. The authors employed analysis of variance and structural equation modeling to determine the…