Effects of School Characteristics on Grades in Compulsory School

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate effects of different school and teacher characteristics, such as municipal and independently-operated schools and teacher certification on grades in compulsory school, and the extent to which parental education confounds the relations between such characteristics and grades. Multilevel, multivariate, techniques were used. The results showed that both school and teacher characteristics accounted for considerable amounts of variance in grades. However, when parental education was taken into account, the relations decreased considerably and, in most cases, became non-significant, thus indicating a confounding effect of parental education on the relations between school and teacher characteristics and grades.

Keywords:

• compulsory school
• grades
• grade assignment
• national tests
• school characteristics
• teacher characteristics

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alli Klapp Lekholm

Alli Klapp Lekholm, Departement of Education, University of Göteborg. Swedish Research Council has financially supported the research reported in this paper. The work is a part of the GRAM (Grade and Grade Assignment: Functions and Effects) project.