The Survey of Schools: ICT in education commissioned in 2011 by the European Commission took place between January 2011 and November 2012, with data collection in autumn 2011. This article presents the main findings of the Survey based on over 190,000 questionnaire answers from students, teachers and head teachers in primary, lower and upper secondary schools randomly sampled. The article details the analytical framework design and the survey methodology implemented. It then presents the main ‘state of the art’ indicators that have been built, concerning ICT infrastructure and access to it, frequency of students' ICT based activities during lessons, level of teachers' and students' confidence in their digital competences, their opinion about using ICT for teaching and learning, and the school strategies to support ICT integration in teaching and learning. The article also presents the main findings of the exploratory part of the analysis, introducing the concepts of digitally supportive school, digitally confident and supportive teacher and digitally confident and supportive student, estimating their respective proportion at EU level on average and by country and investigating whether high percentage of digitally supportive schools include high percentages of digitally confident and positive teachers and students. A few recommendations for policy making at European, national, regional/local and institutional levels conclude the article.

In this study we examined whether the underachievement of boys in language at the end of secondary education is related to school-related attitudes. Data were drawn from the LOSO project, a longitudinal research project in secondary education. The results showed that there were gender differences in language achievement in favour of girls in the lower tracks, but not in the highest track. The underachievement of boys was associated with boys' less positive relationships with teachers, less positive well-being at school and less positive attitude towards schoolwork. Furthermore, the results showed that-in the lower tracks-boys who were the least attentive in the classroom, the least interested in learning tasks and the least motivated towards learning tasks achieved better than expected. Post-hoc analyses revealed that these are the more intelligent boys. Possible explanations of the demotivation of the more intelligent boys in the lower tracks are discussed.

The present study was designed to examine how the attitudinal composition of class groups is related to the gender gap in language achievement at the end of secondary education. Data were drawn from the LOSO project and multilevel analyses were used. The results showed that the attitudes of the class groups, and, more specifically, the attitudes of same-sex classmates, had a stronger impact on the language achievement of boys than on the language achievement of girls. No gender differences were found in classes where students had good relationships with teachers, were motivated, and where students felt integrated, whereas boys performed less well than girls in classes where students did not have good relationship with teachers, were not very motivated, and felt poorly integrated.

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.School effects on the development of motivation toward learning tasks and the development of academic self-concept in secondary education: a multivariate latent growth curve approach The main objective of the present study is to gain more insight into the school effects on the development of 2 noncognitive student outcomes, namely, the motivation toward learning tasks and the academic self-concept, and, more specifically, on the consistency of the school effects on these 2 outcomes. Data were drawn from the ''Longitudinaal Onderzoek Secundair Onderwijs'' (LOSO)-project and consisted of 2,687 students in 50 schools that were tested repeatedly at 4 different time points during secondary education (Grades 7-12). A multivariate multilevel latent growth curve model was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the school effects on the development of the noncognitive outcomes were considerable, and, more importantly, the school effects were larger on growth than on student status. Schools that were effective for the development of the motivation toward learning tasks also proved to be effective for the development of academic self-concept. However, the consistency of the school effects resulted largely from intake differences between schools.Keywords: multivariate multilevel latent growth curve model; motivation toward learning tasks; academic self-concept; secondary education IntroductionMeasuring and explaining school effects have been the central concern in school effectiveness research over the past decades. The vast amount of studies in the field has yielded an extensive knowledge base and expertise. However, several problems regarding the measurement of school effects remain underaddressed and problematic (Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000). The present study addresses three of these problems: school effects on students' noncognitive outcomes, school effects on students' progress, and consistency of school effects.First, despite several pleas, the dependent variable (or effectiveness criterion) in most studies is still student achievement. Noncognitive outcomes, such as learning styles, academic self-concept, values, or attitudes, are only seldom studied, probably because they are more dif...

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