Promoting quality and equity in socially disadvantaged schools: A group- randomisation study

Highlights

• The dynamic approach to school improvement (DASI) is presented.

• An experimental study examined the impact of DASI on promoting quality and equity.

• Students of schools which used DASI managed to make more progress in mathematics.

• In the experimental schools the effect of SES on student achievement was reduced.

• Implications for effectiveness research, policy and practice are drawn.

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) on promoting quality and equity. Forty primary schools in socially disadvantaged areas were randomly split into two groups. The control group was supported to develop action plans, whereas the experimental group used DASI. To investigate the impact of DASI on quality, student achievement gains in mathematics were measured. Using multilevel analyses the experimental schools managed to promote student achievement more than schools of the control group. To investigate the impact of DASI on equity, the impact of the socioeconomic status (SES) on student achievement was measured. The effect of SES was reduced only in the experimental schools. Implications for research, policy and practice are drawn.

Introduction

It is expected generally in society that education should achieve high results in different domains of learning and subject areas. This means that the criteria for effectiveness will be at the level to be obtained by individual students, classes, and schools with respect to those objectives (quality). However, it is also possible to look at the effectiveness of a school from a different angle, especially through investigating how far schools and teachers managed to reduce the learning differences between students coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds (equity). At this point, it should be acknowledged that there are different views of equity which emerge from different philosophical and ideological assumptions about the role of schooling in reducing differences in student learning outcomes with most dominant ones the meritocratic and the egalitarian views. Those supporting the meritocratic view consider differences in student learning outcomes to differences between students in talents and amount of work dedicated to schooling. However, the meritocratic view is difficult to implement as different hidden mechanisms operate in society which makes it harder for some students to develop their talents than for others, even if students are given access to learning opportunities (Lim, 2013). On the other hand, the egalitarian view points out that commitment to equity suggests that differences in outcomes of schooling should not be attributable to differences in the socioeconomic background of students. This implies that extra learning opportunities and guidance for socially disadvantaged groups of students are required to assure equal chances for all students. In this paper the different views of equity are not discussed but it is pointed out that one can look at the effectiveness of a school from a different angle, especially through investigating how far schools and teachers managed to reduce the impact of different background factors on student learning outcomes (equity). This results in educational objectives and criteria for educational effectiveness which are not related to a specific objective and specific students, but related to different groups of students in relationship to each other. The idea behind this is that education can contribute to social justice and democracy by closing the gap between students with regards to their background, especially their abilities and the socio-cultural status of their family (Lafontaine, Baye, Vieluf, & Monseur, 2015; Sammons, 2010).

However, international evaluation studies reveal that the performance of students from disadvantaged background both within and across countries differs substantially from other students. For example, the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study revealed that across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries approximately 20% of the youth is not equipped with the basic skills in mathematics. Disadvantaged students are twice as likely as their advantaged peers to be poor performers, implying that personal or social circumstances may be obstacles to achieving their potentials (Schleicher, 2014). PISA also reports that 40% of the variation in student performance in mathematics is found between schools within a country. This implies that interventions aiming to improve the quality of underperforming schools are needed. Moreover, research shows that interventions supporting primary school students who are at risk have stronger effects than those addressing students at secondary school level (Scheerens and Bosker, 1997, Townsend, 2007). Furthermore, various syntheses of effectiveness programs aiming to improve the attainment of primary students with low basic skills reveal that whole school interventions are more effective (e.g., Borman, Hewes, Overman, & Brown, 2003; Hattie, 2009). In this context, this paper presents the results of a study investigating the extent to which a whole school intervention based on the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (DASI) (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2012) can promote quality and equity in socially disadvantaged schools. Thus, the first part of the paper attempts to illustrate the importance of investigating the school effect on promoting quality and equity. We also refer to the importance of using DASI to undertake interventions at school level in order to promote quality and equity.