Educational effectiveness research has witnessed some growth in the last three decades because the current era of global competitiveness compels each country to train and equip its citizens with knowledge and skills that would make them successful. Researchers from different countries are investigating factors across various levels within the…

International surveys of student achievement are becoming increasingly popular with governments around the world, as they try to measure the performance of their country's education system. The main reason for this trend is the shared opinion that countries will need to be able to compete in the "knowledge economy" to assure the economic…

For at least two decades, studies have demonstrated that the least experienced and credentialed teachers are concentrated in poor, minority, and low-performing schools. Some blame provisions in collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between teachers unions and school districts that favor senior teachers. Seniority preference rules, they say,…

Using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 data, this study built mathematics achievement models of 8th graders in four countries: the USA, Russia, Singapore and South Africa. These 4 countries represent the full spectrum of mathematics achievement. In addition, they represent 4 continents, and they include 2 countries…

This exploratory study examined the associations between teacher-student relationship ratings and characteristics of students and teachers. A sample of fifth grade teachers (N = 115) and their students (N = 2070) were studied. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to explore the associations between variables while taking both individual…

Prior research has documented that classroom-level variables have a significant effect on student outcomes; however, previous findings have typically focused on average student outcomes and have only recently begun to use hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of classroom-level variables on the…

Whether and where students begin college after high school profoundly affects their degree completion and ultimate educational attainment. Students' college access is influenced not only by individual characteristics, but also by economic, social, and schooling contexts. Accordingly, using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study, 2002…

Grounded in social construction theory, the current study investigates the learning context when studying financial planning in high school by analyzing the nesting of student, teacher and classroom characteristics. Key findings were that three student characteristics (initial financial knowledge, gender, senior grade level), one teacher variable…

The present study concurrently analyzed risk and protective factors on the individual and the class level related to bullying and victimization in ethnically diverse schools. The sample derived from the pre-test data of a national intervention evaluation study in Austria (ViSC) and comprised 1,450 students (48.8% girls) aged 11-15 (M = 12.31) from…

The underachievement of ethnic minority youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods is a pervasive educational issue this nation is facing. Based on an ecological perspective, we examined the contextual effects of neighborhood ethnic density and neighborhood disadvantage on the academic achievement of Hmong immigrant youths. Utilizing hierarchical…