| This study aimed to identify the teacher and school characteristics responsible for the level and distribution of student achievement in mathematics and Serbian language in elementary schools in Serbia.; A conceptually integrated model of school effectiveness was designed to guide the research. In this model, related variables from three past research paradigms---input-output, effective-schools, and instructional-effectiveness---as well as key student background variables, were organized into larger constructs based on the literature review. At each schooling level, some of constructs were hypothesized to predict both the student achievement and the distribution of achievement across students' socio-economic backgrounds.; Individualized questionnaires were developed for students, teachers, and principals to collect data on the constructs. The study sample consisted of 119 public elementary schools, 253 classrooms, and 4,857 third-grade students in Serbia. The students in the sample were tested in mathematics and Serbian language. Factor analysis was performed on the questionnaire data to identify the most parsimonious sets of variables that could represent the constructs in the empirical testing of the model.; The Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to identify the associations of major student-, classroom-, and school-level constructs with student achievement and the distribution of achievement across students' socio-economic backgrounds.; After controlling for student-level variables, this research found little association between school-level variables and student achievement in mathematics and Serbian language. Seven classroom-level policy manipulable variables were found to have small positive associations with student achievement. They were clear and structured classroom instruction, greater emphasis on complex (as opposed to basic) skills, more whole-class instruction (rather than individual or group work), teacher feedback, orderly climate, moderately frequent reinforcement of student effort, and---to a lesser extent---use of a variety of teaching tools. These findings can help Serbia to optimally allocate its limited educational resources. |
