Multilevel Model of School Effectiveness in a Developing Country

摘要

The comparative effectiveness of schools in developing countries, particularly the relative efficiency with which alternative inputs and management practices enhance student achievement, has become the center of a lively debate in the literature. Of particular concern is the appropriate analytic method to employ when examining school effects. The paper uses a multi-level approach to examine determinants of growth in grade 8 mathematics achievement in Thailand. Results of the analysis showed that schools in Thailand were equally effective in transforming pretest scores into post test scores, and that schools and classrooms contributed 32% of the variance in post test scores. The model developed in the paper was able to explain most of the between school variance, but significantly less of the within school variance. Only one variable slope, the relationship between educational aspirations and achievement, was observed. The implication of the results is that schools in Thailand are much more uniform in their effects than previous research in developing countries would have suggested. (Copyright (c) 1989 The World Bank.)