Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 2021
Research related to the “teacher characteristics” dimension of teacher quality has proven inconcl... more Research related to the “teacher characteristics” dimension of teacher quality has proven inconclusive and weakly related to student success, and addressing the teaching contexts may be crucial for furthering this line of inquiry. International large-scale assessments are well positioned to undertake such questions due to their systematic sampling of students, schools, and education systems. However, researchers are frequently prohibited from answering such questions due to measurement invariance related issues. This study uses the traditional multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) and an alignment optimization method to examine measurement invariance in several constructs from the teacher questionnaires in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 across 46 education systems. Constructs included mathematics teacher’s Job satisfaction, School emphasis on academic success, School condition and resources, Safe and orderly school, and teacher’s...
This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequ... more This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequality in student performance. We were interested in studies of explanatory variables that are amenable to educational policy interventions. To identify such publications, we developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted an electronic search based on six databases. We also manually searched two existing hand-picked reviews. After duplicates were removed, the search resulted in 814 references, of which a total of 35 studies met the eligibility criteria. The included studies investigated diverse topics such as learning environments inside and outside of school, educational expenditure, teacher education, autonomy, accountability, differentiation, and competition from private schools. Most studies are descriptive in nature and their findings are sometimes ambiguous. Despite these limitations, we tentatively conclude that the opportunity of choice reinforces inequality. Measures that target social selection can be effective.
Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 2021
Research related to the “teacher characteristics” dimension of teacher quality has proven inconcl... more Research related to the “teacher characteristics” dimension of teacher quality has proven inconclusive and weakly related to student success, and addressing the teaching contexts may be crucial for furthering this line of inquiry. International large-scale assessments are well positioned to undertake such questions due to their systematic sampling of students, schools, and education systems. However, researchers are frequently prohibited from answering such questions due to measurement invariance related issues. This study uses the traditional multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) and an alignment optimization method to examine measurement invariance in several constructs from the teacher questionnaires in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 across 46 education systems. Constructs included mathematics teacher’s Job satisfaction, School emphasis on academic success, School condition and resources, Safe and orderly school, and teacher’s...
This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequ... more This chapter reviews international comparative studies on the determinants of socioeconomic inequality in student performance. We were interested in studies of explanatory variables that are amenable to educational policy interventions. To identify such publications, we developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted an electronic search based on six databases. We also manually searched two existing hand-picked reviews. After duplicates were removed, the search resulted in 814 references, of which a total of 35 studies met the eligibility criteria. The included studies investigated diverse topics such as learning environments inside and outside of school, educational expenditure, teacher education, autonomy, accountability, differentiation, and competition from private schools. Most studies are descriptive in nature and their findings are sometimes ambiguous. Despite these limitations, we tentatively conclude that the opportunity of choice reinforces inequality. Measures that target social selection can be effective.
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Papers by Victoria Rolfe