Does the duration of school interventions matter? The effectiveness and sustainability of using the dynamic approach to promote quality and equity

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the sustainability and the impact of offering the dynamic approach (DA) to schools for more than 1 year in improving student achievement in mathematics (quality) and reducing the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on achievement (equity). A sample of 56 schools in socially disadvantaged areas in three countries (i.e., Cyprus, Greece, and Ireland) and their Grade 4 and 5 students (n = 2,844) participated in this study. Two experimental groups used DA to develop school improvement strategies and action plans. The first experimental group, which employed DA for only 1 school year, was more effective than the control group in promoting student achievement in mathematics and reducing the impact of SES on achievement both at the end of the 1st and 2nd implementation year. Schools which made use of DA for 2 years were found to be the most effective at the end of the 2nd year.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational effectiveness research
• quality and equity in education
• sustainability of school improvement interventions
• duration of school improvement interventions
• dynamic nature of education

Acknowledgements

The study presented in this paper is part of a 3-year project (2014–2017) entitled “Promoting Quality and Equity: A Dynamic Approach to School Improvement (PROMQE) (Agreement Number: 2014-1-CY01-KA200-000281)”, under the Erasmus+ Key Action 2, Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices (Field: School Education). This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leonidas Kyriakides

Leonidas Kyriakides is Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation at the Department of Education of the University of Cyprus, Cyprus. His main research interests are in the area of school effectiveness and school improvement and especially in modelling the dynamic nature of educational effectiveness and in using research to promote quality and equity in education. Leonidas acted as chair of the EARLI SIG on Educational Effectiveness and as chair of the AERA SIG on School Effectiveness and Improvement. He was also a member of the PISA 2015 QEG expert group that was responsible for developing the theoretical framework and the questionnaires of the PISA 2015 study.

Panayiotis Antoniou

Panayiotis Antoniou is a Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Evaluation at the Department of Education, University of Cyprus. Prior to his employment at the University of Cyprus, he worked as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge, UK. His research interests are related with improving effectiveness at the teacher and school levels. He is also interested in human resource management and teacher professional development. During the last years his research agenda has been concerned with implementing and measuring the impact of the dynamic approach to school improvement and to teacher professional development both of which aim to the application of the findings of educational effectiveness research to the improvement of educational practice.

Andria Dimosthenous

Andria Dimosthenous is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus. She has participated in several international projects on educational effectiveness and school improvement. Her research interests include the modelling of educational effectiveness and the investigation of the short- and long-term effects of the classroom and home learning environment on student achievement gains.