Value added of schools in Serbia

Abstract

Value added (VA) is one of the measures to assess the quality of school work; when calculating this value, the individual characteristics of students are statistically equalised in order to focus on the factors that are under the jurisdiction of the educational system. The basic value of VA is seen in providing as fair information as possible about the contribution of teachers and / or schools to student achievement. In this paper, we investigate the value added of schools in Serbia. We have set the following research goals: (1) examining the contribution of students' individual characteristics on student achievement in seven subjects, (2) establishing the connection between the student achievement and the expected VA, (3) examining the representation of school groups selected by the expected student achievement and VA and (4) determining the variability of VA of subjects in a particular school. The study was conducted on the sample of 125 elementary schools, with participation of 5065 8th grade students and 5021 parents of these students. Data on student variables were collected through a questionnaire, and from student achievement from the 2011 TIMSS and 2015 final exam databases. Hierarchical modelling was used for the analyses. The results, among other things, show that the expected student achievement and VA are unrelated for most schools, that most schools have both negative VA and below-average expected achievement, and that VA varies between school subjects. The limitations of this study are also given, as well as the implications that the obtained data have on educational policy in Serbia.