ABSTRACT
School Effectiveness Research (SER) has expanded rapidly during the last three decades. Methodological advances have enabled more efficient estimates of teacher and school differences in student achievement to be obtained (Goldstein, 2003). In regard to the theoretical component of the field, progress was made by a more precise definition of the concepts used and the relations between the concepts (e.g. Levine and Lezotte, 1990; Scheerens and Bosker, 1997). However, there is a shortage of rational models from which researchers can build theory. The problem is aggravated by infrequent use of whatever models exist (Kyriakides, 2005). As a consequence, most of school effectiveness studies are concerned with the establishment of statistical relationships between variables rather than with the generation and testing of theories that could explain those relationships.
