Using Comparative International Studies for Modeling Educational Effectiveness: A secondary analysis of PISA-2009 study

International surveys of student achievement are becoming increasingly popular with governments around the world, as they try to measure the performance of their country’s education system. The main reason for this trend is the shared opinion that countries will need to be able to compete in the ‘knowledge economy’ to assure the economic wellbeing of their citizens. This paper argues that secondary analyses of international comparative studies can help the development of the theoretical framework of educational effectiveness research. Toward this end, we present the results of a secondary analysis of PISA-2009 study which investigates the validity of the Dynamic model of Educational Effectiveness Research especially with regards the school level factors. Across-country multilevel analysis of reading achievement revealed the importance of contextual factors and student level factors included in the dynamic model, especially student motivation, opportunity to learn, and school climate factors. Additionally, a comparative analysis with six countries seems to suggest that the model holds for individual countries as well especially at the student level. Based on these results, we draw implications for the design of comparative studies aiming to contribute to the development of evidence-based reform policies in education. Key words: International comparative studies, theory, and educational effectivenes