Examining the School Characteristics of Different National School Lunch Program–Eligible Schools

• In Event: Investigating Academic Resilience Using Data From the 2017 NAEP

Abstract

Many research studies from the 1970s to the 1990s examined the effects of school characteristics on student academic outcomes. Through this line of research, five key characteristics were identified: 1) strong leadership by the principal, 2) high expectations for student achievement, 3) an emphasis on basic skills, 4) an orderly school environment, and 5) frequent, systematic evaluation of students (Stedman, 1987; Reynolds, Bollen, Creemers, Hopkins, Stoll, and Lagerweij, 1996). In spite of the potential importance of school factors, much research on student academic outcomes has focused heavily on individual student characteristics in relation to student outcomes.

This presentation will focus on the exploration of school-level characteristics related to student academic outcomes and how those identified characteristics are related to students’ mathematics achievement. Research has shown that there is a relationship between NSLP eligibility, a proxy for socio-economic status, and educational achievement (Thomson, 2018). Therefore, this research hypothesizes that school characteristics will be differentially distributed across schools with different NSLP levels, as related to student mathematics achievement for schools that report low, moderate, and high NSLP eligibility. A multilevel model featuring student demographics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender) at level one and CFA-identified school level factors at level two will be examined. This multilevel model will be examined on samples at the three NSLP school levels: 0-25%, 26-75%, and 76% +.

The 2017 NAEP Grade 8 Mathematics School Questionnaire were used to identify items (Table 1) related to school characteristics that have been shown to contribute to student academic outcomes. Such characteristics are as follows:
• Math program aligned with school curriculum and assessment - schools led by principals who ensure the curriculum and practices are aligned with the school’s educational goals (Branch, Hanushek, and Rivkin, 2013)
• Teacher collaboration - principals who shape the school learning environment by promoting teacher collaboration, and involving teachers in decision-making (Grissom, Loeb, and Master, 2013)
• Time resources/extracurricular activities - schools that increase learning time by providing more opportunities for teachers and students to engage, as well as providing extracurricular activities, such as academic clubs to improve cognitive and non-cognitive skills (Patall, Copper, and Allen, 2010).

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to assess the extent to which the NAEP School Questionnaire items were related to the above three factors, at each NSLP eligibility level (Figures 1, 2, and 3). The CFA results showed configural invariance across the NSLP eligibility levels with good fit.

The final paper will include results of the multilevel model to examine if and how school factors are differentially related to student mathematics achievement for low, moderate, and high NSLP schools. The extent to which school factors, in moderate and high NSLP schools, are significantly related to positive student achievement highlights factors that promote academic resilience at the school level.

Author

• Juanita Hicks, American Institutes for Research