DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL AND INSTRUCTION CHARACTERISTICS BETWEEN HIGH-EFFECTIVE, AVERAGE-EFFECTIVE, AND LOW-EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

Secondary multilevel analyses on the data set of the national evaluati on of the Dutch Educational Priority Program (EPP) were applied to sel ect schools that are high, average and low effective across grades and school years. Analyses were carried out on arithmetic achievement dat a of some 50,000 pupils in 560 primary schools. These children were te sted both in 1988 and 1990. Differences in school and instruction char acteristics between the three types of schools were explored to explai n differences in effectiveness. Results show that only one school char acteristic, educational leadership, was related (negatively) to effect iveness. With regard to instruction characteristics the picture only p artly is consistent with earlier research: teachers in high effective schools give more whole-class instruction, more often have the same mi nimum goals for all pupils and spend more time on learning activities and evaluation of learning tasks. They also offer more learning conten t during the school year. On the other hand they spend less hours duri ng the week on arithmetic and register less frequently the mastering o f learning content. It is concluded that efficient allocation of oppor tunity and time to learn within arithmetic lessons seems to be especia lly important in explaining differences in pupils' arithmetic achievem ent among schools.