Introduction

The purpose of this study was to determine relationship between the school effectiveness based on student perceptions and students’ academic growth levels is specified by value-added model, gain score model, difference score approach.

Additionally, the students’ perceptions toward school effectiveness and academic growth were compared according to their family socioeconomic variables and school size.

It was considered as important and informative for teachers and instructional leaders to determine the school effectiveness from students’ perspective, students’ academic growth via diverse growth models and approaches. Findings about school effectiveness will support to manage school quality and national education system. The quality of schools is one of the leading problem in national or international level. Because, welfare of any community is based on human resources’ quality of education.  Nations are increasingly seeking the components and methods of good quality education at global level. This study is performed to contribute for this effort.

This study was designed as correlational model. The sample including 808 eight-grade students in 9 public secondary schools in 2016-2017 academic year. Schools in sample located in North-west of Turkey. All the students in sample responded Personal Information Form and The School Effectiveness Scale (SEFS) was developed by Gunal (2014). Personal Information Form has questions about student’s demographic characteristics (gender, grade etc.), student’s family educational features and home educational resources (family education level, ownership about personel room, study desk, PC with internet connected, number of book at home etc.). Personal ID information did not request from all students. The SEFS has Likert type 27 items. The SEFS is based on Lezotte and Snyder’s theoretical framework in respect of effective school. The SEFS measures students’ perceptions on effectiveness of their schools in six sub dimension. These dimensions are respectively, (1) Parent-school interaction (7 items), (2) Instructional leadership, (7 items), (3) Secure and organized school environment (4 items), (4) Monitoring learning outcomes (3 items), (5) High academic expectations (3 items) (6) Learning occasions (3 items). The construct validity of The SEFS is examined by structural equation modelling-SEM. The results of SEM for SEFS showed that six different sub scale and this six dimensional measurement model was confirmed by result of SEM with significant RMSEA (0.051) and high fit indexes (GFI:0.92; AGFI: 0.90; NNFI:0,95; NFI: 0.93; CFI: 0.96). And Also, the %46.96 of total variance for scale scores was explained by these sub scales. The reliability of SEFS subscales are varied between 0.67 and 0.80, Internal reliability for total scale is 0.91. Data about schools’ characteristics and students’ grade points in sample is obtained through School Survey which was responded by school administrators and E-school data base which is constructed by National Ministry of Education. Multiple linear regression was performed on the academic growth measures that specified by value-added model. The relationship between student perceptions towards school effectiveness and academic growth was analysed with structural equation modelling. The effects of school size and academic growth on perceptions towards school effectiveness were compared by MANOVA. The relationships between socioeconomic variables and academic growth was examined with Chi-Square Ratio Test. In handling and analysing data, Excel 2016, SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 were applied.

Results Results showed that academic growth scores which were designated by both value-added model and gain score model had significant correlations with school effectiveness scores. High academic (ac.) growth-, medium ac. growth-, and low ac. growth groups based on value-added and gain score models had a significant difference on the sub dimension of Parent-School Interaction, Safe and Organized school environment, High Academic Expectation, Monitoring the Student Learning in School Effectiveness Scale. In all these SEFS sub dimensions, the low ac. growth group had significantly lower mean scores across compared groups. Instructional Leadership in SEFS was the only sub dimension which academic growth did not have a significant difference. In context of school size and school effectiveness, results yield that students in small- and medium-sized schools had significantly higher scores than the students in big-sized schools in all school effectiveness Results of this study gave us some important information about the effective school from students’ point of view. According to students’ perceptions, almost all effective school dimensions make difference on students’ academic achievement. Small and mid- size school is supporter school effectiveness and academic growth. Also, parental education level (at least high school diploma) and substantial home educational resources have crucial importance for student’s academic growth. The quality of education is one of the main concern in national and international educational systems. Because, there is strong tied between quality of educational system and effective schools. To investigate the variables of effective school in national and international level, it is helping us to develop good quality school systems where students are being happy and productive.

Cody, C. A., McFarland, J., Moore, J. E., & Preston, J. (2010, August). The evolution of growth models. Public Schools of North Carolina. Raleigh, NC. Retrieved from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/intern-research/reports/growth.pdf Günal, Y. (2014). Etkili Okul Değişkenlerinin Öğrenci Başarisi İle İlişkisi Ve Okul Hesap Verebilirliği. Yayınlanmış Doktora Tezi. Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü. Lezotte, L. W., & Snyder, K. M. (20 II). What Effective Schools Do: Re-envisioning the Correlates. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.