TY - JOUR A1 - Wenger, Marina A1 - Gärtner, Holger A1 - Brunner, Martin T1 - To what extent are characteristics of a school's student body, instructional quality, school quality, and school achievement interrelated? JF - School effectiveness and school improvement N2 - The aim of educational policy should be to provide a good education to all students. Thus, a key question arises regarding the extent to which key characteristics of school composition (proportion of students with migration background, socioeconomic status [SES], prior school achievement, and achievement heterogeneity), instructional quality, school quality, and later school achievement are interrelated. The present study addressed this research question by examining school inspection data, official school statistics, and large-scale achievement data from all primary schools in Berlin, Germany (N = 343). The results of correlation and path analyses showed that school composition (average SES, average prior school achievement) predicted components of instructional quality (SES: classroom management, cognitive activation; achievement: cognitive activation, individual learning support). The relation between school composition characteristics and most components of school quality was close to zero. Contrary to our expectations, only the effect of school SES on later achievement was mediated by instructional quality. KW - school composition KW - instructional quality KW - school quality Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2020.1754243 SN - 0924-3453 SN - 1744-5124 VL - 31 IS - 4 SP - 548 EP - 575 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Michael A1 - Lüdtke, Oliver A1 - Trautwein, Ulrich A1 - Köller, Olaf A1 - Baumert, Jürgen T1 - The differential effects of school racking on psychometric intelligence Do academic-track schools make students smarter? JF - The journal of educational psychology N2 - Prior research has shown that quantity of schooling affects the development of intelligence in childhood and adolescence. However, it is still debated whether other aspects of schooling-such as ability tracking or, more generally, school quality-can also influence intelligence. In this study, the authors analyzed intelligence gains in academic- and vocational-track schools in Germany, testing for differential effects of school quality (academic vs. vocational track) on psychometric intelligence. Longitudinal data were obtained from a sample of N = 1,038 Grade 7 and 10 students in 49 schools. A nonverbal reasoning test was used as an indicator of general psychometric intelligence, and relevant psychological and social background variables were included in the analyses. Propensity score matching was used to control for selection bias. Results showed a positive effect of attending the academic track. KW - school quality KW - intelligence KW - cognitive development KW - longitudinal studies KW - propensity score matching Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027608 SN - 0022-0663 VL - 104 IS - 3 SP - 682 EP - 699 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER -