Effects of socioeconomic status, class size and ability grouping on science achievement: a sociological approach

Abstract

This study examines the effects of key social group variables (e.g. socioeconomic status, class size, ability grouping and school type) on the science achievement of secondary school students in Canberra, Australia after controlling for student level effects (e.g. prior performance, attitudes toward school, liking of science and educational aspirations). The study employed a multilevel analysis procedure to examine the data at the student, classroom and school levels for both direct effects and cross-level interaction effects. The major finding is that sociological factors in this school system operated at the classroom level, together with cross-level interaction effects operating at the school and classroom levels, with no main effects operating at the school level to explain nearly all the variability between classrooms and schools.