The research on "school effectiveness" indicates that differences among schools can affect student achievement. The National Assessment of Educational Progress collects data on school characteristics, but no previous studies have attempted to link these data to student performance. This study will look at the relationship between science and mathematics achievement in grades three, seven and eleven and two types of explanatory variables: student level variables (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) and school level variables (e.g., student body composition, fiscal and physical characteristics of the school, school program structure, school academic standards, and principal and teacher characteristics).
