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Whether school composition makes a difference for student outcomes has been the
subject of much controversy. This article draws on Growing Up in Ireland data, a rich
source of information on nine-year-old children along with the characteristics of their
school and classroom teacher. In contrast to many studies which rely on a single
measure of soci...
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Citations
... Diese Frage stellt sich verschärft an Schulen mit sozial benachteiligter Schülerschaft, an denen Lehrermangel und eine hohe Zahl von Lehrkräften ohne Lehramtsabschlüsse aufeinandertreffen(Richter, Marx & Zorn, 2018). Diese Schulen leiden in diesem Zusammenhang oft unter höheren Berufsausstiegsraten in ihren Kollegien(Falch & Strøm, 2005;McCoy, Quail & Smyth, 2014). Gerade hier sind Maßnahmen, die qualitativ hochwertiges Mentoring bei vertretbarem Aufwand bereitstellen können, besonders relevant. ...
Mentoring kann beginnende Lehrkräfte bei diversen Herausforderungen ihres Berufseinstiegs unterstützen. Zugleich haben viele beginnende Lehrkräfte keinen oder nur unzureichenden Zugang zu qualitativ hochwertigen Mentoring-Angeboten. Das Projekt NEST (Novice Educator Support and Training) implementiert in sieben europäischen Bildungssystemen ein Mentoringprogramm, das sich an Lehrkräfte an sozial benachteiligten Schulen richtet und dabei versucht, Unterstützung durch die Herstellung von Adaptivität auf unterschiedliche Schulkontexte und insbesondere die Bedürfnisse mentorierter Lehrkräfte zu gewährleisten. Im vorliegenden Beitrag soll ein Einblick in das Evaluationskonzept des im Projekt zentralen Mentor*innen- Trainings gegeben werden. Es wird herausgearbeitet, wie das Projekt mit der Herausforderung umgeht, gemeinsam mit lokalen Partnerorganisationen Verfahren für eine Evaluation in den Kontexten unterschiedlicher Bildungssysteme zu entwickeln, die Perspektiven sowohl von Mentor*innen als auch Lehrkräften berücksichtigt. Das Evaluationsdesign und Ergebnisse zur Veränderung und Beurteilung der Praktiken von Mentor*innen aus drei kontrastierenden Bildungssystemen werden vorgestellt. Anschließend werden Konsequenzen für das Projekt und dessen fortlaufende Evaluation diskutiert. //////////////
Mentoring can support beginning teachers with various challenges of their career start. At the same time, many beginning teachers have no or insufficient access to high-quality mentoring opportunities. The NEST (Novice Educator Support and Training) project implements a mentoring program in seven European education systems aimed at teachers in socially disadvantaged schools, seeking to ensure support by creating adaptivity to different school contexts and, in particular, to the needs of mentored teachers. In this article, we provide insight into the evaluation concept for the mentor training that is central to the project. Furthermore, we show how the project deals with the challenge of developing methods for an evaluation in the contexts of different educational systems together with local partners, which considers the perspectives of both mentors and teachers. We present the evaluation design and results on changing and assessing the practices of mentors from three contrasting education systems. Lastly, we discuss consequences for the project and its ongoing evaluation.
... These studies point to important composition features for students' behaviour, such as SES and ethnic composition. Generally, students are more likely to disengage behaviourally from school in schools with a lower SES composition (Demanet and Van Houtte 2014;McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2014. It is therefore to be expected that these compositional school features also specifically relate to absenteeism, one of the dimensions of behavioural disengagement. ...
... While school composition makes a difference for student outcomes has been the subject of much controversy, our results are in line with other research, such as that of Demanet and Van Houtte (2014) who conclude on the effects of socio-ethnic composition on the behavioural and emotional disengagement of students in low socio-economic schools. The study by McCoy, Quail, and Smyth (2014) concludes along the same lines. ...
This article aims to provide knowledge on the effects of the social composition of schools and the mediating effect of emotional engagement on school absenteeism, from a comparative perspective and using a multilevel methodology. The comparative dimension of the analyses allows us to study whether there is a school effect on absenteeism and whether this differs according to organisational structures. For this purpose, three cities with three different models were considered. Data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY) were used. Data were collected in three cities Barcelona (Spain), Ghent (Belgium) and Bergen (Norway), with a total sample of N = 6557 pupils in 82 schools. The results show, first, that absenteeism varies between cities and schools according to the model of school organisation. They also revealed the importance of instrumental and expressive student identification as prevention of absenteeism at the individual level. Finally, results reported that a high emotional engagement of pupils can contribute to reducing the effect of the social composition of the school on absenteeism.
... These schools are all located in densely populated areas in working-class neighbourhoods with high unemployment rates and with a large proportion of both internal and international migrants. McCoy et al. (2014) distinguish between disadvantaged schools in rural areas, two categories of disadvantaged schools in urban areas (Urban Band 1 and Urban Band 2), and non-disadvantaged schools in Ireland. Urban Band 1 schools are the most deprived schools; children attending these schools have the most disadvantaged socioeconomic background. ...
... Generally, all disadvantaged schools show an overrepresentation of children living in single-parent households compared to non-disadvantaged schools. Moreover, immigrant students are more prevalent in urban disadvantaged schools in Ireland (McCoy et al. 2014). Kyriakides and colleagues (2019) operationalised their use of SES by focusing on the father's and mother's level of educational attainment, the social status of both the father's and the mother's job, and the main elements of the learning environment at home. ...
In the context of disadvantaged schools, remedial interventions are implemented to compensate for unfavourable conditions. However, there seems to be no clear rationale linking the characteristics which education systems use to decide whether a school is disadvantaged and the prospective remedial interventions. In addition, the specific needs and challenges faced by novice teachers working in disadvantaged schools are not well understood. Yet, this is important for the success of pedagogical measures improving outcomes for both teachers and students. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the terminology and indicators used across European educational systems to identify disadvantaged schools, as well as the perceptions of novice teachers at these schools about the issues they face. The empirical part of the article draws on evaluation data from a European project (NEST—Novice Educator Support and Training) which implemented an adaptive mentoring programme in Austria and six other European education systems. In a first step, the authors approach the definition of the concept of disadvantage and examine how disadvantaged schools are designated in the seven education systems. To this end, document analyses and expert interviews were examined. Analysing novice teacher data from the questionnaires developed for project evaluation, the authors observe how the challenges of disadvantaged schools are perceived from both the perspective of novice teachers as well as educational administrations. The findings provide valuable insights for the design and implementation of remedial interventions that are tailored to the unique challenges disadvantaged schools face.
... The issue of school average SES having an effect 2 over and above individual SES-variously termed a "school composition", "school-mix", "multiplier" or "contextual" effecthas been debated extensively in the literature on school effectiveness (see e.g., McCoy et al., 2014;Nash, 2003;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002;Sciffer et al., 2020;Teddlie et al., 2000;Willms, 1992). Most previous studies in this area employ statistical methods (typically hierarchical linear modelling) that provide estimates of the average effects for the relationship between dependent variable, y and independent variable, x (McCoy et al., 2014;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). ...
... The issue of school average SES having an effect 2 over and above individual SES-variously termed a "school composition", "school-mix", "multiplier" or "contextual" effecthas been debated extensively in the literature on school effectiveness (see e.g., McCoy et al., 2014;Nash, 2003;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002;Sciffer et al., 2020;Teddlie et al., 2000;Willms, 1992). Most previous studies in this area employ statistical methods (typically hierarchical linear modelling) that provide estimates of the average effects for the relationship between dependent variable, y and independent variable, x (McCoy et al., 2014;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Using approaches that provide average effects do not take into account potential heterogeneity in the relationships of interest across the distribution of the outcome variable (Rios-Avila & Maroto, 2022). ...
... In the Irish primary school context, the achievement gap between pupils attending disadvantaged schools and their peers in less disadvantaged schools has been shown to reflect differences between the two school contexts in teacher experience and turnover, the concentration of additional learning needs, absenteeism levels and children's engagement in school (McCoy et al., 2014). Focusing on the reading and mathematics achievement of 9-year-olds, McCoy et al. examine how the effects of school disadvantaged status on achievement change having accounted for a range of school, teacher and pupil variables. ...
Background
The existence of a multiplier, compositional or social context effect is debated extensively in the literature on school effectiveness and also relates to the wider issue of equity in educational outcomes. However, comparatively little attention has been given to whether or not the association between student achievement and school socio-economic composition may vary across the achievement distribution. Furthermore, with limited exception, comparatively little use has been made of unconditional quantile modelling approaches in the education literature.
Methods
This paper uses Irish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 and employs ordinary least squares regression and unconditional quantile regression empirical approaches to examine the association between school socio-economic composition and achievement. Reading and mathematics achievement are used as outcome variables and models control for a rich set of school and student characteristics.
Results
Findings from the ordinary least squares regression show that, on average, there is a significant negative relationship between school socio-economic disadvantage and student achievement in reading and mathematics having controlled from a range of individual and school-level variables. From a distributional perspective, unconditional quantile regression results show variation in the strength of the relationship between school socio-economic disadvantage and student achievement, particularly in reading, with a stronger association at the lower end of the achievement distribution. Findings illustrate the need to give nuanced consideration to how students with varying levels of achievement may experience a socio-economically disadvantaged context at school. Our findings also draw attention to the benefit of examining variation in the association between achievement and explanatory variables across the achievement distribution and underscore the importance of moving beyond an exclusive focus on the mean of the distribution. Finally, we emphasise the importance of drawing population-level inferences when using the unconditional quantile regression method.
... This seemed to have emerged organically via the need to structure the DEIS Plan response. Given the increased difficulty of working within challenging contexts (McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2014;Muijs et al. 2004), it would be foolish to expect success from monocratic approaches to both school leadership and improvement (Brown et al. 2019). The DEIS Plan recognises this and supports the necessity for a whole school approach to realising a school's vision. ...
... While a collaborative culture focused on student learning as outlined by the participants, it is difficult to ascertain whether this is a result of a dichotomised societal perspective of DEIS schools, the organisational structure provided by the DEIS Plan or an understanding of empowering leadership from the leaders interviewed. DEIS schools reportedly have a higher teacher turnover rate than non-DEIS schools (McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2014) which aligns with international findings from challenging contexts (Muijs et al. 2004) but perhaps the whole school assignment of roles and responsibilities in terms of the goals identified in the DEIS Plan provides structural comfort to operationalise both teachers and leaders' work towards improvement and effectiveness of learning, nonetheless, it remains crucial that the leaders involved within the school display empowering leadership practices to sustain and capitalise on the potentials of the culture of structural togetherness we found in these DEIS schools. ...
School leadership and school self-evaluations (SSE) have emerged as central to school improvement and effectiveness. In Irish policy, SSE has had a challenging history as several attempts to embed SSEs have been met by poor clarity around roles of responsibility, a moratorium on middle leadership appointments and more laterally, a global pandemic. However, schools providing for students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, known as DEIS schools, have proved quite successful in SSEs for over 15 years. This study aimed to explore the leadership and school self-evaluation experiences in DEIS schools. This small-scale qualitative study comprised in-depth interviews with school leaders in DEIS schools. The themes identified suggest how leaders negotiate a dichotomised societal perspective of DEIS schools, and how culture and structure facilitate an empowered collective. The research also highlights SSEs as a space for professionals to also consider their own professional learning in the form of job-crafting.
... At the same time, the cultural background of immigrant children does not always have a similar 'currency' , given language differences and country variation in the formal and informal 'rules' of education systems. Byrne et al. (2010) find that immigrants are more often found in schools with a disadvantaged intake, while McCoy et al. (2014) find that there is an additional negative effect on achievement in Ireland of attending a disadvantaged school, even after taking into account the socioeconomic background of the children. ...
Õppeedukus on üks peamistest näitajatest, mille põhjal ennustada edasist töist edu. Samas on varasemad uuringud näidanud, et paljudes riikides on rändetaustaga lastel keeruline saavutada emakeeles haridust omandavate eakaaslastega samaväärseid õpitulemusi. Hoolimata hariduspürgimustest võib rändetaustaga vanematel olla keeruline oma sotsiaalset ja kultuurilist kapitali konverteerida nii, et see toetaks nende laste saavutusi sihtriigis. Iirimaa on huvitav näide, sest selles riigis toimus mitmekesise taustaga sisserändajate (paljud neist eurooplased) laialdane ja kiire ühinemine koolisüsteemiga, kus õpivad valdavalt valged, iiri- ja ingliskeelsed katoliiklikest peredest pärit lapsed. Toetudes rändetaustaga laste ja noorte akadeemilist edukust käsitlevale ulatuslikule teaduskirjandusele, uuritakse siinses töös üheksa-aastaste rändetaustaga laste akadeemilist edukust uues sisseränderiigis vahetult pärast sisserände kõrghetke. Tulemused näitavad, et erinevalt paljudest vanadest sisserändajaid vastu võtvatest riikidest jäävad sisserändajate saavutused Iirimaal vaid veidi maha kohalike laste tasemest, kusjuures sotsiaalne ja kultuuriline kapital mõjutab oluliselt lugemisoskust inglise keeles, eriti Ida-Euroopa lastel, kelle puhul oli lõhe suurim. Hiljutiste rändetaustaga laste keelelise lõimumise mustrite adumine võib aidata meil mõista neid protsesse laste ja nende perekondade hilisema liikumise korral Euroopas. Full text
... At the same time, the cultural background of immigrant children does not always have a similar 'currency' , given language differences and country variation in the formal and informal 'rules' of education systems. Byrne et al. (2010) find that immigrants are more often found in schools with a disadvantaged intake, while McCoy et al. (2014) find that there is an additional negative effect on achievement in Ireland of attending a disadvantaged school, even after taking into account the socioeconomic background of the children. ...
Educational achievement is one of the key indicators of labour market success, yet previous research shows that in many countries, children from immigrant backgrounds struggle to match their native peers in terms of achievement. Despite high educational aspirations, migrant parents may struggle to "convert" their social and cultural capital to support their children’s achievement in their country of destination. Ireland is an interesting case study as there was substantial and rapid immigration of a diverse group of migrants, many of whom were European, to a school system that was predominantly White, Catholic, Irish and English-speaking. Drawing on the extensive literature on academic achievement of immigrant children and youth, this paper explores the academic achievement of 9-year-old immigrant children in a ‘new immigration country’, just after the peak of inward migration. The results show that unlike in many ‘old’ immigrant-receiving countries, the immigrant "penalty" in achievement in Ireland is modest, with social and cultural capital playing a salient role in English reading achievement, particularly for East Europeans, for whom the gap is greatest. Understanding the patterns of linguistic integration for recent migrant children may help us understand these processes in the case of subsequent movements of children and their families in Europe.
... That said, it should not be underestimated how significant the influence of family is on the educational and career choices of young people (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997). McCoy et al., 2014refer to Hossler et al., (1999 who claim that parental expectations and encouragement have the greatest impact on students' developing aspirations, particularly with respect to planning for further education. Parental support increases students' confidence to explore options, including options that they may previously have thought to be inaccessible, and to engage in career planning (McCoy et al., 2014;Turner & Lapan, 2002). ...
... McCoy et al., 2014refer to Hossler et al., (1999 who claim that parental expectations and encouragement have the greatest impact on students' developing aspirations, particularly with respect to planning for further education. Parental support increases students' confidence to explore options, including options that they may previously have thought to be inaccessible, and to engage in career planning (McCoy et al., 2014;Turner & Lapan, 2002). Balli et al., 1998;Hoover-Dempsey et al., 1995;Lareau, 1987;Trotman, 2001 note that one of the reasons that parents with lower educational attainment are less likely to be engaged in their children's education is that they believe themselves that they did not have sufficient knowledge to Reay (1998) and Robinson and Harris, (2014) posit that deficit thinking models can be created in the classroom when teachers and the schools in which they teach assign themselves a middle-class cultural capital that considers families experiencing socio-economic disadvantage to have a lesser value on the importance of education. ...
... Research examining the effects of school social mix in Ireland has found evidence of a threshold effect such that concentration of disadvantage beyond a certain level is associated with lower levels of achievement, when school, teacher and student factors are accounted for. This threshold effect appears to differ somewhat for reading and mathematics, with significantly lower levels of reading achievement observed among students in urban schools with moderate and high concentrations of disadvantage, while lower levels of mathematics achievement are only observed amongst students in urban schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage (McCoy et al., 2014). The extent to which a threshold effect among schools in Ireland may also exist for science is unknown and warrants further research. ...
... A further factor which may be relevant in the Irish context is teachers' level of experience. Teachers in urban DEIS schools tend to be younger and less experienced than teachers in rural DEIS schools or in non-DEIS schools (Clerkin, 2013;McCoy et al., 2014). ...
... Based on this, a binary measure was constructed with 0 indicating a rural area and 1 indicating all other areas (urban; suburban; medium size city or large town; small town or village). Following McCoy et al. (2014), this indicator is intended to facilitate distinctions between any contextual effects observed in urban or rural schools. ...
Recent educational policy initiatives in Ireland have focused on improving outcomes in reading and mathematics among students, particularly those experiencing educational disadvantage. However, science achievement in Irish primary schools has received much less research attention, especially in the context of educational disadvantage. This article examines science achievement and its relationship to school compositional effects in primary schools at the national level, including school-average indicators of the school context, as well as examining factors associated with science achievement in three distinct categories of schools (those with high, moderate, or minor levels of educational disadvantage). The data are drawn from the Fourth grade Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 database for Ireland. Multilevel analyses were implemented in a stepwise manner. Findings suggest the relevance of school contexts with regard to science achievement. Before including school-level contextual variables, students from ‘minor disadvantaged’ schools achieved significantly higher science scores than students from schools with ‘moderate’ or ‘high’ levels of disadvantaged. However, this difference disappears after controlling for predictors at the school level. The findings highlight the importance of the home environment, including early numeracy activities and skills before children start school. Results are discussed with regard to educational policy and educational practice in Ireland.
... An initial literature search for Irish-based peer-reviewed research on access to the teaching and learning of specialist IME yielded scant results. While debates on access and inequality in education are extensive (Lynch and Baker 2005;Lynch and Moran 2006;McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2014;Lynch and Crean 2018;Fleming and Harford 2021), there is very little research on specific out-of-school, education-related subjects such as IME. Much excellent work has been published on in-school, general music education (Kenny 2010(Kenny , 2011McCarthy, O'Flaherty, and Downey 2019), yet this corpus is primarily concerned with classroom music delivered by the generalist teacher and does not deal with IME per se. ...
ABSTRACT
In Ireland access to instrumental music education (IME) largely
operates through the private market. Unlike other European
countries Ireland does not have a music school law or policy
position. The purpose of this article is to examine how a long-established
history of subsidiarity which is enshrined in the Irish
Constitution together with the ideology of choice, has
underpinned the provision of IME. This has led to the growth of a
market-led system of provision that promotes inequalities. The
data suggests that parents seeking IME for their children are
compelled to act as customers and competitive citizens and that
the private choices of those who can pay to play, masks the
dearth of state-supported universal IME provision. In conclusion,
it is argued that by continuing to adopt the principles of
subsidiarity, the State is both exonerated from being fully
responsible and accountable for the adequate provision of IME
and is complicit in perpetuating structural inequalities that favour
access to capitals-rich families, be in the state-supported IME, or
IME in the private education market.
KEYWORDS
Subsidiarity; music
education; market; policy; Ireland
