Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness by ethnicity, gender, poverty, and prior achievement

Exploring social and psycho-social factors that might help explain the Afro-Caribbean boy underachievement in England

“…On the other hand, it did not moderate boy underachievement which is partly inconsistent with Caribbean literature which show that higher ability schools attenuate the gap between boys and girls. However, it is somewhat consistent with findings in England that demonstrate that differences in school quality and neighborhood factors dot not adequately explain the gap between Afro-Caribbean and White students (Strand, 2010(Strand, , 2011. Thus, the achievement gap between Afro-Caribbean boys and girls residing in England might share similar features to the achievement gap between AfroCaribbean and white students; consequently socioeconomic factors might play lesser roles in explaining these gaps.…”

“…De Lisle (2006) and De Lisle et al (2005, 2010 found that there was a significant boy underachievement in Trinidad & Tobago at the third grade and sixth grade levels but the advantage was much greater in language arts compared to math. This was similar to findings for 5th graders in Jamaica (Baker-Henningham et al, 2009).…”

Educational Effectiveness Theory and Research: Recent Advances

“…This perspective does not only examine student outcomes, but also the extent to which schools manage to reduce the variance in student outcomes compared to prior achievement. In this respect, studies on the effects of contextual factors (Opdenakker and Van Damme, 2006) and on the extent to which teachers and schools are equally effective with different groups of students (i.e., differential school effectiveness) have been conducted (e.g., Campbell et al, 2004;Strand, 2010). Moreover, the sociological perspective raises attention for process variables emerged from organizational theories which were treated as school-level factors associated with student achievement (Scheerens, 2013).…”

The use of a school value-added model for educational improvement: a case study from the Portuguese primary education system

“…Although the SER movement has provided a great deal of evidence regarding differential school effects (Mortimore, Sammons, Stoll, Lewis, & Ecob, 1988;Nuttall, Goldstein, Prosser, & Rasbash, 1989;Strand, 2010), the school VA effect appears to be the one attached to an educational agenda that is concerned with quality in education and the "wish of politicians to get better value for public expenditure" (Saunders, 1999, p. 234).…”