Scale Creation

Two different types of indices can be distinguished:

Simple indices - Constructed through the arithmetical transformation or recoding of one or more items, such as ratios, averages, or binary indicators, for example:

• Student-teacher ratio
• Ratio of teachers to number of personnel for pedagogical support
• Ratio of teachers to number of school administrative or management personnel
• Average class size

Complex scale indices

• The underlying variables are intended to measure the indices that are unobserved.
• Indices were operationally defined by observable items and constructed using complex procedures that involved scaling the items.
• Typically, scale scores for these indices are estimates of latent traits derived through scaling of dichotomous or polytomous (e.g., Likert scale) items using latent trait methodology.
• Complex scale-item statistics such as item frequencies and item-total correlations were used to initially evaluate the quality of the scale items across all countries.
• A reliability coefficient alpha (Cronbach’s alpha) was used as the measure of scale reliability.
• EFA was used to evaluate complex scales.
• CFA was used to construct the scales.
• CFA with multiple comparison groups was used to validate the constructed scales.

List of background scales

• School disciplinary climate
  • School delinquency and violence
  • Mutual respect
• Distributed leadership
• Instructional leadership
• Principal job satisfaction
  • Satisfaction with current work environment
  • Satisfaction with profession
• Teacher self-efficacy
  • Efficacy in classroom management
  • Efficacy in instruction
  • Efficacy in student engagement
• Teacher job satisfaction
  • Satisfaction with current work environment
  • Satisfaction with profession
• Participation among stakeholders
• Teacher-student relations
• Classroom disciplinary climate
• Constructivist beliefs
• Teacher co-operation
  • Exchange and coordination for teaching
  • Professional collaboration
• Professional development
  • Effective professional development
  • Needs for professional development in subject matter and pedagogy
  • Need for professional development for teaching for diversity
• Self-efficacy in teaching mathematics
• School autonomy
  • School autonomy for staffing
  • School autonomy for budgeting
  • School autonomy for instructional policies
• School resources
  • Lack of pedagogical personnel
  • Lack of material