SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA: A Multilevel Analysis of School Effects and Geographic Variations Among Grade 9 Students

Abstract

Aim: This study examined how school characteristics influence mathematics achievement among Grade 9 students in South Africa. The research investigated the direct effects of school factors on achievement, explored mediating pathways through student characteristics, and analysed how these relationships vary across geographical contexts, focusing on academic emphasis, disciplinary climate, and resource effects between urban and rural settings. Theory: The research integrated the Dynamic Model of Educational Effectiveness with Durkheim’s Social Facts Theory to create a comprehensive theoretical framework. This synthesis provided foundations for examining how institutional and individual factors interact to influence mathematics achievement while acknowledging how social structures systematically shape educational outcomes across varied contexts. Methods: The study employed hierarchical linear modelling, together with the mixed.sdf function in the EdSurvey package, the R Programming Language for statistical analysis, to analyse data from the TIMSS 2019 South Africa Grade 9 assessment (20,829 students, 519 schools). The analysis examined direct school effects while controlling for student characteristics, investigated mediating pathways, and analysed cross-level interactions between school characteristics and geographical location. Results: School characteristics substantially influenced mathematics achievement through both direct and indirect pathways. School emphasis on academic success enhanced achievement directly and through student confidence (indirect effect: 0.389), while disciplinary climate operated through students’ classroom behavioural mechanisms. Geographic location emerged as a crucial moderator, with resource effects reversing between urban (b = 17.004) and rural contexts (interaction: b = -21.112). This demonstrates how institutional structures systematically shape mathematics achievement across South Africa’s diverse landscape.