Modelling Student Progress in Studies of Educational Effectiveness

It is argued that a crucial requirement in studies of educational effectiveness is the modelling of change or growth in student learning. To illustrate one approach to achieving this end, results are presented from multivariate multilevel analyses of three‐waves of data for three Grade level cohorts of students from a longitudinal study designed to explain variation in elementary school students' progress in literacy achievement. The article provides estimates of the influence of prior achievement and social background factors including ‘critical events’, on students’ progress, examines the extent to which progress can be accounted for by the grouping effects of students within classes and schools over successive years, and provides estimates of the effects of explanatory variables at the student‐and class/teacher‐levels.