Teacher quality and a pupil’s mathematics achievement on the primary leaving examinations in Uganda: Multilevel modeling

The Purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between teacher quality and a pupil’s achievement in Mathematics on the Primary Leaving Examinations (i.e., 7th grade) in Uganda. The study employed a cross- sectional survey design. Data were from the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) Mathematics results, 2018 (N = 952). Mathematics teachers who taught the seventh grade were also part of the study participants (n = 18). A Two-Level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) was used to investigate the question “What is relationship between teacher quality and pupils’ achievement on (PLE) achievement in mathematics controlling for prior achievement/knowledge. The result show that the effect of the Teacher Quality Measure (TQM) on mathematics PLE scores controlling for the pretest was statistically significant (γ11= -.01, t = -2.17, df = 16, p = .045). That is, for every one-point increase in teacher TQM scores, the effect of the pretest on mathematics PLE scores decreases by .01 point. Additionally, statistically significant variability in the mathematics PLE means exists (τ00 = 1.72, Χ2= 336, df = 16, p = .000), as well as statistically significant variability in the effect of the pretest (τ11 = .02, Χ2= 40.85, df = 16, p = .000).