Modelling school effectiveness and attainment equity in Thailand

Abstract

Thailand has been facing a crisis of education in terms of low and unequal quality of schooling for over a decade, and these problems are still becoming more and more severe. The big challenges Thailand faces when it comes to promoting quality of schooling and reducing inequity of attainment have been become a national priority and a focus of an extensive public debate. Therefore, the major research question addressed in this study is: what makes school effective in terms of both quality and equity? To answer this, the sequential mixed method research design, which begins with quantitative followed by qualitative research, was adopted in the study.

In Phase I, the quantitative research focuses on investigating school effectiveness factors affecting student attainment and quantifying the level of quality and attainment equity at the school level. Data used in the study were derived from the survey from schools operating in the lower secondary level in the Prachin Buri Province and the individual students’ national testing scores (O-NET) in eight subjects according to the Thai Basic Education Core Curriculum. This study adopted the most up-to-date school/educational effectiveness model: the dynamic model of educational effectiveness, proposed by Creemers and Kyriakides (2008). Overall, the multilevel analysis revealed that after controlling for student characteristics, classroom and school contextual factors, the significant factors affecting student attainment included school policy and practice related to (i) quality of teaching, (ii) provision of sufficient learning resources, and (iii) value of favour in learning. In addition, the dimension of effectiveness factors used to define and measure these are: frequency, focus, stage, quality, and differentiation. The overall quantitative findings confirmed the robustness of the original version of the dynamic model of education effectiveness, which can be applied in the context of Thai education. To measure the degree of school attainment equity, this study employed Kelly’s attainment equity index (Kelly’s AE). The multiple regression analysis showed that average SES is a vital predictor to attainment equity in nearly all eight subjects, whereas the percentage of girls as well as school size inconsistently affect attainment equity across eight subjects.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Anthony Kelly: orcid.org/0000-0003-4664-8585

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