Naslov
Using External Evaluation Data for Testing the Effectiveness of Primary School in Croatia
(Testiranje uspješnosti osnovnih škola u Republici Hrvatskoj temeljem podataka vanjskoga vrednovanja)

Autori
Burušić, Josip ; Babarović, Toni ; Šakić, Marija ; Dević, Ivan

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
ECER2010 / - , 2010, 48-48

Skup
ECER2010: Culture, Education, Change

Mjesto i datum
Helsinki, Finska, 23.09.2010. - 27.09.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
school effectiveness; primary school; external evaluation
(uspješnost škola; osnovne škole; vanjsko vrednovanje)

Sažetak
Issues of quality assurance in education as well as the external evaluation of education are significant issues that concern creators of educational policy inasmuch as researchers working in the area of education. During the last decade, a number of changes in the educational system as well as primary school education have taken place in the Republic of Croatia. There are 844 elementary schools in the Republic of Croatia with approximately 450, 000 pupils involved in this stage of education. With the aim of advancing the quality of the primary school system as well as the improvement of the effectiveness of primary school, external evaluation was introduced experimentally for two consecutive school years based on the obtained results on pupils’ achievements for a number of subjects. During the school year 2006/2007, an external evaluation of pupil achievements in Croatian and Mathematics was conducted. All schools participated but this did not include all pupils as the sample was restricted to a sample of pupils. By its very nature, this evaluation was experimental and principally served to test the devised model of external evaluation. During the school year 2007/2008, a complete external evaluation of educational of pupils’ achievements was conducted. This included all regular primary schools ; 844 primary schools in all and all pupils that were in grades 4 and 8 at these schools. In total, 48, 232 grade 4 pupils and 46, 196 grade 8 pupils participated. This research was conducted on a voluntary basis in which parents/caretakers gave their informed consent for participation in the external evaluation. The achievements of pupils in a number of subjects at the end the first (grade 4) and second (grade 8) cycle of compulsory education was investigated. This included: Croatian, Science and Social Studies, and foreign languages in the first cycle ; Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History Croatia, English, German and French in the second cycle. Besides these individual tests, evaluation included the testing of competence and capabilities of pupils to integrate class content from different subjects, that is, the capabilities of pupils to solve problem tasks. The main aim of this study was to explore to what extent the effectiveness of primary schools can be explained. The next important issue was to identify to what extent school success can be attributed to different features of a school that belong to the basic features that refer to the conditions of school operation (e.g., school founder type, geographical position of the school in the state, the characteristics of pupils that attend the school, etc.) as well features related to school management, the programmes at the school and in class (e.g., characteristics of the school principal, the number of programmes available at the school, the type of classes, etc.) as well as specific indicators with regard to the school climate ( e.g., the number of absentees, pupil-teacher ratio etc.) This research was conceptualized as an extensive empirical investigation based on pupils standardized “paper-pencil” tests assessment. Fourth-grade pupils completed objective tests in Croatian, Math, Science, integration of knowledge in different subjects and first foreign language, and eighth-grade pupils completed exams in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, History, integration of knowledge in science and social subjects, Croatian and first foreign language. School average results were calculated as a mean result of all schools pupils participated in external evaluation. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with average achievement of schools in 4th and 8th grades as criterions and different sets of school characteristics structured into five independent blocks - which included (1) school size, (2) characteristics of status, (3) school management, (4) program and teaching features and (5) school climate indicators. The relative impact of each block of predictors to explain school success is examined, as well as the overall significance of prediction. Results show that school effectiveness at the end of 4th and 8th grade can be explained by examined characteristics, and their explanatory power was greater in 4th grade. Majority of characteristics pertaining to status, program and teaching contribute significantly to the explanation of school effectiveness, and characteristics pertaining to basic administrative and status determinants of school functioning have the greatest predictive strength. These findings in the context of explaining and improving school effectiveness in attainment of educational goals implicate that in Croatian primary school education system still there is many differences between schools related primary to basic characteristics of schools such as differences between urban and rural schools, bigger and smaller school, geographical place within Croatia, etc.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija, Pedagogija

POVEZANOST RADA