The short‐term and the long‐term effect of primary schools and classes on mathematics and language achievement scores

Abstract

A considerable body of previous research has demonstrated that differences between schools and classes have an impact on students' learning and acquisition of skills. It is not yet clear, however, whether the effects persist in the longer term. The present study examines the effect of primary schools and classes on language and mathematics achievement over a period of two years after leaving primary education. Considerable short‐term effects of the primary school and class on achievement levels at the end of primary education were found. Multilevel models with a cross‐classified structure were constructed to estimate the long‐term effects. Differences between secondary schools and classes turned out to be much more important for achievement in secondary education than the long‐term effects of primary schools and classes, which were small and died out fast.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the Research Fund K.U.Leuven for funding the project.

Notes

1. The number of classes for Dutch is roughly, but not exactly, equal to the number of classes for mathematics. Also, the classes in the seventh and the eighth grade are roughly equal in number.

2. Only a handbook with a selective overview of statistics of the primary schools school year 1989–1990 released by the Department of Education was at our disposal (Ministerie van Onderwijs, 1990).

3. All the effect sizes presented are calculated using the raw pupil level standard deviation (Schagen & Elliot, 2004, chap.5).

4. In these analyses the sample is limited to the students who did not change schools between the seventh and eighth grade and who did not repeat the seventh grade. In other words: each student in the subsample was enrolled in the eighth grade in 1991–92 and belonged to a single secondary school in the school years 1990–91 and 1991–92.