Concept and Design Developments in School Improvement Research : : Longitudinal, Multilevel and Mixed Methods and Their Relevance for Educational Accountability

• Superior document: Accountability and Educational Improvement
• Author: Oude Groote Beverborg, Arnoud.
• TeilnehmendeR: Feldhoff, Tobias.; Maag Merki, Katharina.; Radisch, Falk.
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Accountability and Educational Improvement
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (314 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study’s design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the breath of quantitative measures and analyses in a mixed-methods design seems very promising. Consequently, the focus of the book lies on innovative methodological approaches. The book chapters address design, measurement, and analysis developments as well as theoretical and conceptual developments. The relevance of the research presented in the chapters for educational accountability is discussed in the book’s discussion chapter. More specifically, authors present one specific innovative methodological approach and clarify that approach with a concrete example in the context of school improvement, based on empirical data when possible. In this way, this book helps researchers designing complex useful studies.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- About the Editors -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 Overview of the Chapters -- Chapter 2: Why Must Everything Be So Complicated? Demands and Challenges on Methods for Analyzing School Improvement Processes -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Theoretical Framework of the Complexity of School Improvement Processes -- 2.3 Conclusion and Outlook -- 2.3.1 Guiding Questions -- References -- Chapter 3: School Improvement Capacity - A Review and a Reconceptualization from the Perspectives of Educational Effectiveness and Educational Policy -- 3.1 Introduction

3.1.1 What Kind of School Improvement? -- 3.2 Contextually Variable School Improvement -- 3.2.1 The Role of Context in EE over the Last Decades -- 3.2.2 Meaningful Context Variables for SI -- 3.3 School Improvement and Classrooms/Teaching -- 3.3.1 Reasons for Improving Teaching to Foster SI -- 3.3.2 Lesson Study and Collaborative Enquiry to Foster SI -- 3.4 Building School Improvement Capacity -- 3.5 Studying the Interactions Between Schools, Homes, and Communities -- 3.6 Delivering School Improvement Is Difficult! -- References

Chapter 4: The Relationship Between Teacher Professional Community and Participative Decision-Making in Schools in 22 European Countries -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Theoretical Section -- 4.2.1 Professional Community (PC) -- 4.2.2 Participative Decision-Making (PDM) -- 4.2.3 The Relationship Between Professional Community and Participative Decision-Making -- 4.2.4 The Specific National Educational Contexts -- 4.3 Method -- 4.3.1 Data and Variables -- 4.3.2 Analysis Method -- 4.4 Results -- 4.4.1 Professional Community and Participative Decision-Making -- 4.4.2 Sensitivity Checks

4.5 Conclusion and Discussion -- 4.5.1 Limitations and Future Research -- References -- Chapter 5: New Ways of Dealing with Lacking Measurement Invariance -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.1.1 The Multi-Level Framework of the Education System -- 5.1.2 Context Matters: Comparing Educational Constructs in Different Contexts -- 5.1.3 Teaching Quality -- 5.1.4 Measurement Invariance Analyses -- 5.1.5 Research Objectives -- 5.2 Method -- 5.2.1 Study -- 5.2.2 Data Analyses -- 5.3 Results -- 5.3.1 Research Aim No. 1: How Neglecting MI Could Lead to False Interpretations of Results

5.3.2 Research Aim No. 2: Investigating the Stability of the Scale Used to Assess Disciplinary Climate Across Countries and Comparing Countries Even if MI Is Missing -- 5.3.3 Research Aim No. 3: Explaining Missing MI by Using Other Variables, Which Are Considered to Have the Same Meaning in Different Countries -- 5.4 Discussion -- 5.5 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 6: Taking Composition and Similarity Effects into Account: Theoretical and Methodological Suggestions for Analyses of Nested School Data in School Improvement Research -- 6.1 Expanding the Concept of Group Level in School Research

6.2 Composition Effect as Diversity Typologies