Teacher effectiveness, which impacts student attainment even when controlling for student characteristics, is of key importance as a factor in educational effectiveness and improvement. Improving the quality of teaching is thus the primary means by which we can enhance student learning outcomes. Thus there has long been great interest in the…

An overview of the first five years of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES) is described. The longitudinal nature of the study has allowed the research team to develop an evolving methodology, one benefiting from prior external studies as well as prior phases of LSES. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are…

Much educational effectiveness research has been conducted over the past 40 years in developed countries, whereas few studies have focused on developing or newly industrialized countries such as the People's Republic of China. The case studies discussed in this article are part of a larger multiple-case, mixed-methods study that investigated 6…

The objective of this study was to advance our understanding of educational effectiveness processes within contexts where they have seldom been studied before: rural and urban areas in China. Utilizing a "contextually sensitive" school effectiveness research design, we collected classroom observation data to address our research…

Van Houtte (2005) called for clarification of the terms "school culture" and "school climate" and the role of each in school effectiveness research. This article presents a theoretical framework for school culture that asserts that it is a context-specific branch of organizational culture comprised of 4 dimensions and 3 levels. This…

School-effectiveness research has made three considerable contributions: establishing a field exhibiting the characteristics of normal science, generation of research findings on numerous important topics, and combating of social/professional pessimism concerning educational-advancement prospects. School-effectiveness researchers will probably…

This book describes the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES), a decade-long project that identified the characteristics of effective schools. Following the foreword by Larry Cuban, four chapters in part 1 outline the rationale and four-phase design of the LSES. Four chapters in part 2 present quantitative and qualitative findings from LSES…

Counters 14 criticisms of school-effectiveness research (SER). Many criticisms are founded on simplistic/skewed readings of SER; there is wide diversity in SER. Many SER researchers have considered socioeconomic effects on achievement but believe schools can have influences beyond social class. Pragmatism is a worthy paradigm for studying schools.…

Examines the school day experiences of four third graders at schools that vary by effectiveness and student body socioeconomic (SES) status. Their experiences highlight the mundane way in which the average school day passes. Students have little opportunity for critical thinking, and except in the more effective lower SES school, they have very…

This paper presents findings of a study that sought to delineate subtopics within school-effects research (SER). After conducting a literature review and determining initial categories, a survey was conducted of 37 authors who were judged to have made the most significant contribution to SER within the last decade. A total of 28 authors responded.…

Examines educational services delivery to the entire school and to those who scored below the median on achievement tests in 242 Louisiana elementary schools. Results indicate that mean masking occurs in about 17 percent of schools, most frequently when schools do an above-average job of educating the lowest quartile. (SLD)

Reports findings from a double-blind, paired stable-outlier study of the relationships between aggregated student achievement test scores and extended school, classroom, and student observations in Louisiana schools. (SH)