Factors Influencing Academic Achievement and Improvement: A Value-Added Approach

This study aimed to demonstrate an approach to measuring the value-added contribution to academic achievement made by education, and to identify the direct and indirect effects of a school’s practices and its contexts. Multilevel modeling using hierarchical linear model (HLM) was employed to adjust the effect of pupil background characteristics and prior achievement (grade 4 achievement) on the same cohort’s achievement at grade 6. Subsequent analysis utilized a causal model to investigate the effect of a school’s practices and its contexts. The results confirmed that the school’s practices had a significant positive affect on the value-added achievement, while negatively affecting value-added progress. In addition, schools located away from the district educational office negatively affected value-added progress.