Unequal outcomes: the role of school effectiveness in shaping learning trajectories by Jack Rossiter, Education Research Officer, young Lives University of Oxford CIES International Conference Atlanta, 9 March 2017

1. Unequal outcomes: the role of
school effectiveness in shaping
learning trajectories
Jack Rossiter, Education Research Officer
CIES
Atlanta, 9 March 2017

2. 1. Enrolment is not learning
2. Measuring what matters for
learning is not straightforward
3. I will review our approach to
measuring meaningful learning
in Young Lives’ school surveys
4. Then suggest how this may be
used to understand student
learning trajectories and for
comparative analysis of school
effectiveness
MAIN POINTS

3. • Primary ‘global’ net enrolment rate passing 90% (UIS)
• But what will this mean for learning by 2030?
FROM SCHOOLING TO LEARNING

4. • Young Lives ‘school component’
introduced in 2010
• No intervention: understand,
describe and explain using
observational data
• 2016-17: upper primary (Ethiopia)
and secondary (Vietnam and India)
grades
YOUNG LIVES SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS SURVEYS
Country Sites Schools Students
India 20 205 9,820
Vietnam 14 52 8,860
Ethiopia 30 64 12,140

5. SCHOOL SURVEYS: EXAMPLE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Benchmarking levels of attainment
and progress in key domains
 What are students’ levels of
performance in core curricular
and transferable skills domains?
 How do students progress over
time (in one academic year &
since previous surveys)?
 What is the nature of
inequalities in attainment &
progress, and how are these
shaped over time?

6. • Defining learning quality at upper
primary and secondary levels is
complex: more than the
development of basic skills
• ‘Meaningful’ learning: ‘not only
acquiring knowledge, but also being
able to use knowledge in a variety of
new situations’ (e.g. Mayer 2002)
• Equip young people with skills for
future labour market or higher
education opportunities (World
Bank 2009)… more on that later
ASSESSING MEANINGFUL LEARNING: MATHS

7. ASSESSING MEANINGFUL LEARNING: MATHS
Number
sense and
basic number
competency
Integers and
Rational
numbers,
Powers and
Bases
Fractions,
Decimals,
Ratios and
Percentages
Area and
Perimeter,
Volume and
Surface Area
Basic
Shapes,
Geometry and
Visual
estimation
Algebra:
concepts and
applications
Measurement,
Data
Interpretation,
Analysis and
Graphs
Problem
solving and
Applications
in daily life
Appropriate content domains
 Led by curriculum in each country
e.g. Ethiopia Minimum Learning
Competencies
Cross-country cognitive domains
 TIMSS 2015 framework
• Knowledge
• Application
• Reasoning

8. We produced:
• A curriculum-linked assessment
covering all cognitive domains and
the content domains relevant to each
country
• While retaining cross-country
comparability, through use of anchor
items in overlapping
content/cognitive domains
• Which allows later construction of a
common scale of mathematics
achievement
A CROSS-COUNTRY ASSESSMENT

9. 0
.002.004.006
200 400 600 800 1000
Ethiopia India Vietnam
W1 DESCRIPTIVES (A)

10. W1 DESCRIPTIVES (A)0
.002.004.006
200 400 600 800 1000
Ethiopia India Vietnam
Ethiopia 2 India 2 Vietnam 2

11. W1 DESCRIPTIVES (B)
Problem solving and applications in daily lifeIntegers and rational numbers, powers and bases
Tú’s father is 6 times as old as Tú. Tú's mother is
25 years old. The average age of this family of
three is 20 years. How old is Tú?
A. 15 years
B. 10 years
C. 7 years
D. 5 years
0
.5
1
-4 -.305 4
Ethiopia India Vietnam
mat26
0
.5
1
-4 .264 4
Ethiopia India Vietnam
mat117

12. AND…
With this measurement approach we can:
 Understand the educational trajectories of individuals
and groups, between testing occasions
 Suggest hypotheses about the relationship between
student learning progress and school, classroom,
teacher and student characteristics (school
effectiveness model)
 Explore country differences in terms of cultures,
curricula and school organisation > not a vehicle for
ranking countries but one for further scrutiny

13. www.younglives.org.uk
@YLOxford
• methodology and research papers
• child profiles and photos
• e-newsletter
• datasets (UK Data Archive)
FINDING OUT MORE