Resumen

CERVINI ITURRE, Rubén. Relationships Among School Composition, School Process and Mathematics Achievement in Secondary Education in Argentina. REDIE [online]. 2003, vol.5, n.1, pp.1-27. ISSN 1607-4041.

The author examined the relationships between school composition and some characteristics of school process according to the students -institutional culture and school climate-, and their effects on mathematics achievement at the end of secondary education in Argentina. The study examined data of 135,000 students in 2,708 high schools from the Censo Nacional de Finalización del Nivel Secundario 1998 (High School National Census of 1998). Multilevel linear modeling with three levels (student, school and state) was used to analyze the school composition and process effects on achievement. It was found that (1) there are strong relationships between some but not all composition and process variables; (2) acting separately, both types of variables show strong effects on achievement, but (3) the analyses of their jointly effect produce an important decline in the effect of some composition and process school variables; (4) nevertheless, the school process variables maintain significant net effect on achievement. The results are discussed in term of the school effectiveness research and some implications for future investigations on institutional factors are inferred from the analysis.

Palabras llave : School achievement; mathematic achievement; secondary education; school effectiveness; institutional factors; school climate; school culture.