Heterogeneity Of Classes Is Good For Reading Progress In Elementary School

Author(s):

Yulia Kuzmina(presenting / submitting)Alina Ivanova

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 10 A, Teaching Strategies and Learning Quality

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

15:30-17:00

Room:

W2.10

Chair:

Ineta Luka

Contribution

Many researchers believe that start of schooling is a crucial period for children, their cognitive and social development. Class or school composition have a significant effect on progress and achievement in elementary school (e.g. McLean et al., 2016). Some authors focused on the effect of non-academic composition characteristics such as average socio-economic status or proportion of immigrants within class (school) (Van der Slik, Driessen & De Bot, 2006; Perry & McConney, 2010). Other examined the effect of averaged class or school achievements or class academic homogeneity on individual performance and progress (Hanushek et al., 2003; Hoffer, 1992).

It has been shown that averaged class or school achievements have the positive effect on learning progress or individual achievements (e.g. Zimmer & Toma, 2000). This effect has been confirmed in elementary school (McLean et al., 2016 ), in secondary and high school as well (Carman & Zhang,2012; De Fraine et al., 2003; Ding & Lehrer, 2007).

Findings about the effect of classroom homogeneity on academic progress are inconsistent. There are some evidences that students’ progress in academically homogeneous classes may be higher than in heterogeneous classes (Ding, Lehrer, 2007). At the same time, other authors do not confirm significance of this effect (e.g. Kiss, 2013; Hanushek et al., 2003). The effect of class homogeneity is predominantly estimated in secondary school (Kaur, 2016; Lavy, Silva,& Weinhardt, 2012). There are fewer studies focused on estimation this effect in elementary school (e.g. Burns & Mason, 2002).

It has been also demonstrated that effect of class composition on academic progress varies for students with different abilities. There is evidence that peers achievements and homogeneity of class have the effect on progress of students with high ability only (Hoffer, 1992; Ding, Lehler, 2007).

The overarching goal of our study is to estimate the effect of class average achievements and homogeneity on academic progress during the first year of schooling. We attempt both to identify effect of class composition on academic progress and ascertain whether this effect is generalizable across different groups of students and subjects.

Method

To fulfill our goals we used two-wave longitudinal data of the international Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (iPIPS) which was conducted in Russia in 2015-2016. The first stage of the assessment was conducted in October 2015, the second stage – in May 2016. The initial sample in October 2015 was 5265 children. To get more reliable results of group level characteristics we excluded classes with less than 10 students from our analysis (Schank, 2016). As a result, we included into analysis 4625 students from 194 classes. To estimate how class composition (classrooms heterogeneity and students averaged scores) effects on first-graders progress in math and reading under control of prior achievements, family background and some school characteristics we run a set of multilevel regression models. To estimate how the effect of class composition varies for students with different level of initial math and reading achievement we added two interaction terms between initial read (math) scores and class average achievement or standard deviation within class (heterogeneity).

Expected Outcomes

Our analysis show that the effect of class average achievements and class heterogeneity (adjusted on family background and student’s prior achievements) is significant and positive for reading and not significant for math. The level of students’ prior achievements may moderate the effect of class composition. For students with high prior achievements the effect of class averaged achievement is significant and positive for both subject although for reading progress this effect is larger. We have found significant positive effect of being in heterogeneous class is slightly higher for low-ability students in reading and not significant for math.

References

Burns, R. B., & Mason, D. A. (2002). Class composition and student achievement in elementary schools. American Educational Research Journal, 39(1), 207-233. Carman, K. G., & Zhang, L. (2012). Classroom peer effects and academic achievement: Evidence from a Chinese middle school. China Economic Review, 23(2), 223-237 De Fraine, B., Van Damme, J., Van Landeghem, G., Opdenakker, M. C., & Onghena, P. (2003). The effect of schools and classes on language achievement. British educational research journal, 29(6), 841-859. Ding, W., & Lehrer, S. F. (2007). Do peers affect student achievement in China's secondary schools?. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(2), 300-312. Hanushek, E. A., Kain, J. F., Markman, J. M., & Rivkin, S. G. (2003). Does peer ability affect student achievement?. Journal of applied econometrics, 18(5), 527-544. Hoffer, T. B. (1992). Middle school ability grouping and student achievement in science and mathematics. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 14(3), 205-227. Kaur, P. S. (2016). Mathematics for all: the effects of heterogeneous grouping and community circles on student achievement and attitude (Doctoral dissertation, San Francisco State University). Kiss, D. (2013). The impact of peer achievement and peer heterogeneity on own achievement growth: Evidence from school transitions. Economics of Education Review, 37, 58-65. Lavy, V., Silva, O., & Weinhardt, F. (2012). The good, the bad, and the average: Evidence on ability peer effects in schools. Journal of Labor Economics, 30(2), 367-414. McLean, L., Sparapani, N., Toste, J.R., McDonald Connor, C. (2016). Classroom quality as a predictor of first graders' time in non-instructional activities and literacy achievement, Journal of School Psychology, 56, 45-58. Perry, L. B., & McConney, A. (2010). Does the SES of the school matter? An examination of socioeconomic status and student achievement using PISA 2003. Teachers College Record, 112(4), 1137-1162. Schunck, R. (2016). Cluster Size and Aggregated Level 2 Variables in Multilevel Models. A Cautionary Note. Methods, data, analyses: a journal for quantitative methods and survey methodology (mda), 10(1), 97-108. Van der Slik, F. W., Driessen, G. W., & De Bot, K. L. (2006). Ethnic and socioeconomic class composition and language proficiency: a longitudinal multilevel examination in Dutch elementary schools. European sociological review, 22(3), 293-308. Zimmer, R. W., & Toma, E. F. (2000). Peer effects in private and public schools across countries. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 75-92

Author Information

Yulia Kuzmina (presenting / submitting)

Higher School of Economics

Moscow

Alina Ivanova

Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation

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