Abstract

This study analyses the effects of school resources on student mathematics achievement in Zimbabwe using a 3-Level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM). The major findings of the research are that a teacher trained in the relevant subject, class size, having a highly qualified school head and having a generally high resource endowment at school level improve student test scores. However, text book possession was seen as an insignificant predictor of student achievement. The implication of these findings is that resources owned by schools have an important effect on student test scores, suggesting that value and more attention should be given to what goes on in schools; as well as improving quality of human resources at school level. The study however has a limitation in that it does not fully explore all the probable school and class level determinants of student achievement due to data constraints. 

Key words: School resources, student achievement, mathematics, hierarchical linear modeling.