Measuring Teacher Effectiveness through Hierarchical Linear Models: Exploring Predictors of Student Achievement and Truancy

Abstract

This study explored significant predictors of student’s Grade Point Average (GPA) and truancy (days absent), and also determined teacher effectiveness based on proportion of variance explained at teacher level model. We employed a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) with student and teacher data at level-1 and level-2 models, respectively. Using the data from one of the largest urban school districts in the United States, the analysis identified several significant intervening and demographic predictors at the student level and two significant predictors at the teacher level. The percentages of variance explained at the teacher level ranged from 12% to 15% with ‘small’ to ‘medium’ effect sizes.