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The Students’ Perceptions of School Success Promoting Strategies Inventory (SPSI): Development and validity evidence based studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2014

Paulo A. S. Moreira*
Affiliation:
Universidade Lusíada do Porto (Portugal)
João Tiago Oliveira
Affiliation:
Universidade Lusíada do Porto (Portugal)
Paulo Dias
Affiliation:
Universidade Lusíada do Porto (Portugal)
Filipa Machado Vaz
Affiliation:
Universidade Lusíada do Porto (Portugal)
Isabel Torres-Oliveira
Affiliation:
Universidade Lusíada do Porto (Portugal)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paulo Moreira. Centro de Investigação em Psicologia para o Desenvolvimento (CIPD). Observatório da Melhoria e Eficácia da Escola. Universidade Lusíada do Porto. Rua Dr. Lopo de Carvalho. 4369–006. Porto (Portugal). E-mail: paulomoreira@por.ulusiada.pt

Abstract

Students’ perceptions about school success promotion strategies are of great importance for schools, as they are an indicator of how students perceive the school success promotion strategies. The objective of this study was to develop and analyze the validity evidence based of The Students’ Perceptions of School Success Promoting Strategies Inventory (SPSI), which assesses both individual students’ perceptions of their school success promoting strategies, and dimensions of school quality. A structure of 7 related factors was found, which showed good adjustment indices in two additional different samples, suggesting that this is a well-fitting multi-group model (p < .001). All scales presented good reliability values. Schools with good academic results registered higher values in Career development, Active learning, Proximity, Educational Technologies and Extra-curricular activities (p < .05). SPSI showed to be adequate to measure within-schools (students within schools) dimensions of school success. In addition, there is preliminary evidence for its adequacy for measuring school success promotion dimensions between schools for 4 dimensions. This study supports the validity evidence based of the SPSI (validity evidence based on test content, on internal structure, on relations to other variables and on consequences of testing). Future studies should test for within- and between-level variance in a bigger sample of schools.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2014 

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