Disparity in student achievement within and across secondary schools: an analysis of department results in English, maths and science in New Zealand

Author: Highfield Camilla  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1364-2626

Source: School Leadership and Management, Vol.30, Iss.2, 2010-04, pp. : 171-190

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

It has been reported in the literature that the disparities of student achievement within schools are often larger than the disparity across schools. In the secondary school context, analysing student achievement data at department level enables a fine-grained approach to identifying particular departments and teachers within them that are enabling students to achieve. This paper describes the steps taken to compare the student assessment results of 41 New Zealand secondary school English, maths and science departments with each other. In some schools results across departments show considerable variation by subject and in other schools results across departments are similar.