Dissertation writing help - The Effect of School-Level Resources on Instructional Practices and Student Outcomes

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This study is an examination of the effect of school resources, as mediated through instructional processes, on student achievement in mathematics. The literature on the effect of resources on student achievement is mixed, with many studies concluding that resources make little or no difference. However, in most cases these studies have focused on undifferentiated resource measures such as total expenditures per pupil or teacher salaries. A new line of research suggests that closer attention must be paid to how resources are used by school staffs to support and improve instruction when attempting to gauge resource effects.

Three research questions were examined in this study. First, did some schools, and teachers within schools, have a larger impact on student achievement gains than others? That is, controlling for student characteristics such as socio-economic status or English language ability, did some schools and teachers consistently produce higher student achievement than others? Second, if there was variation in achievement among schools and teachers, was it attributable to the quality of instruction taking place in the classroom? Finally, were there specific resource-use strategies employed by schools that supported higher quality instructional practices.

The study addressed these questions by examining the relationships among school resource use, instructional practices, and student achievement in fifth grade mathematics in the Minneapolis school district. Data were gathered on specific school resources and processes such as per-teacher professional development expenditures, participation in mathematics-specific professional development activities, class size, school leadership, and professional culture. A self-report survey was administered to fifth grade teachers to assess the quality of their instructional practices in mathematics. Data on student achievement in mathematics and student characteristics were obtained from district data sources. A value-added model using multi-level, Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM5) software was used to analyze the three research questions.

The results show that there was statistically significant variability in the effectiveness of schools and teachers on student achievement in math. The study also found a significant relationship between engagement in school-wide, content-focused professional development and higher quality instructional practices in mathematics. However, the analysis did not find evidence of a link between high-quality mathematics instruction and student achievement.

The results of this study have implications that touch on both policy and methods. While the analysis found a significant relationship between engaging in a specific school-wide and content focused professional development program and higher-quality instructional practice, it did not find a similar relationship between instructional quality and either overall per teacher spending on professional development or total expenditures per pupil. This finding provides evidence that resource-use strategies do vary in their effectiveness in improving and supporting instruction, so researchers must look at resource use as well as resource levels when attempting to measure their effects. Finally, some of the challenges encountered in conducting this research highlight the need for developing better measures of resource-use strategies and instructional processes, and more efficient, valid, and reliable instruments for obtaining these measures.