Project summary
The project is the first study of value added by Uruguayan public schools on record. Using hierarchical linear models, and based on two measures of reading and mathematics proficiency conducted on the same cohort of students (one in third grade and the other in sixth grade), the effects of school on students’ academic progress are estimated. The main research questions are: a) How much do schools vary in their reading and math scores once you control for prior scores at both the student and school level? b) How much do schools vary when also controlling for school context? c) Do schools with higher levels of school leadership have higher adjusted averages, i.e., do better school practices lead to higher rates of improvement? If so, how much variation in academic progress attributed to the school is explained by school leadership? In addition, subsidiary hypotheses widely tested by educational research are also included in the analysis, namely: d) Do students attending schools with higher levels of socioeconomic heterogeneity progress more than those attending more homogeneous schools? e) Do schools that offer extended learning time (full-time schools) improve more than other types of schools?
