Opening the Black Box: Multilevel Analysis of Instructional Quality and Student Achievement by School Sector

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Abstract

Using PISA 2015 science achievement and student questionnaires data of 5,712 students from 177 schools in the US, this study examines instructional quality and its relationship with student achievement by school sector. Results of two-level hierarchical linear regression analysis indicate that (I) Instructional quality does not clearly differ in public and private schools. (II) Contrary to the assumptions of market theorists, while organizational factors such as school autonomy and educational leadership do not correlate with instructional quality, teacher quality significantly correlates. (III) Student and school demographics explain 55% of the variance of student achievement between schools, while instructional quality explains 15%. (IV) After controlling for demographics, public schools have higher student achievement by a factor of .25 standard deviations.

Authors

• Yusuf Canbolat, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Christopher A. Lubienski, Indiana University