A Pathway to Educational Accountability: The Relationship between Effective School Characteristics and Student Achievement

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine perceptions of secondary school students towards effectiveness of their school in terms of effective school characteristics such as "Secure and Regular Environment", "High Academic Expectations", "Instructional Leadership", "Learning Opportunities", "Monitoring School Learnings" and "Positive School-Parent Relationship", and to determine the predictive power of such perceptions for student achievement (in terms of year-end academic average grade). In this study, the data on student perceptions of school effectiveness and student achievement were collected by "The Scale for Effective School (SFES)" which is developed by Günal [1]. The validity evidences on SFES were obtained by explanatory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis methods. The CFA yielded good fit indices (RMSEA (0.042)) in terms of construct validity of SFES. These results revealed that the measuring construct of the scale is statistically significant and consistent. As an evidence of internal reliability of the SFES, Cronbach's alpha coefficient for total scale was computed as α=0.91. For the main study, participants (n=4472) were comprised of students attending the grades from 5 to 8 in 13 secondary schools in the centre of Trabzon during the 2012-2013 academic year. The schools were selected according to the criteria of transportation convenience. Collected data by SFES were analyzed by multivariate regression analysis method. According to the participants' perceptions, the most effective school dimension was found as "Instructional Leadership". The results of the multivariate regression analysis reveal that variables (Instructional Leadership, High Academic Expectations, Monitoring School Learnings, Positive School-Home Relationship, Learning Opportunities offered to all students) of effective schools all together explain 27 % of students' year-end academic achievement scores.

A closer look at US schools: What characteristics are associated with scientific literacy? A multivariate multilevel analysis using PISA 2015

“…This has led to a large body of recent school effectiveness literature (e.g., Günal & Demirtasli, 2016; Mitchell et al, 2015; You, 2015). Nonetheless, the research around schools' effects on student learning dates back at least half a century.…”

The Pattern of Relationships Between School Size, School Culture, and Teachers' Organizational Commitment and Students' Academic

“…For example, it is seen that there are many studies that show that organizational culture affects the organizational commitment of employees (Bozoğlu, 2011;Çeliktaş, 2019;Diker, 2014;Köse, 2014;Manyas, 2018;Türkkan, 2017;Uzun, 2020). On the other hand, organizational culture (Alireisoğlu, 2020;Aslan, 2014;Balçık, 2018;Karakoç, 2019;Köse, 2014;Negis Işık, 2010;Özgenel, Canpolat, & Yağan, 2020;Özkan, 2010;Öztürk, 2015;Şimşek, 2014), organizational commitment (Ağıroğlu Bakır, 2013Demirçelik, 2017;Erceylan, 2010;Olgungül, 2017;Özgan, Külekçi, & Özkan, 2012;Özkan, 2010;Orphan, 2015), academic success (Akay, 2017;Günal, 2014;Güven, 2019;Keçeli-Kaysılı) , 2008;Otrar, 2006;Sarıer, 2016;Suna et al, 2021;Yenidunya, 2005) and school size (Akkalkan, 2009;Kalfa, 2006;Özgüler, 2014) variables are examined with different variables. However, no study has been found that considers the relationship between school culture, school engagement, school size and academic achievement together.…”

The ideal school for mainstreaming students' dreams

“…The analysis of the stories revealed that students desire an ideal school and learning environment that prioritizes physical well-being, environmental comfort, educational and cultural well-being, socio-emotional well-being, the joy of learning, and the pursuit of dreams and innovations. Günal and Demirtasli (2016) aimed to determine the perceptions of secondary school students towards the effectiveness of their schools in terms of effective school characteristics such as "Safe and Orderly Environment", "High Academic Expectations", "Teaching Leadership", "Learning Opportunities" and they determined that high academic expectations play an important role, that there are meaningful results related to a safe and orderly environment, that teachers and students should feel safe, that the physical structure of the school is important, and that a positive school-family relationship is effective.. School and family members are important basic elements that complement each other in children's education. The child, family, and school triangle begins with the children attending school and continues for many years.…”