Abstract:
The objectives of this thesis were: (1) to study factors affecting primary school students' achievement; (2) to study administrators ' and teachers ' opinion on determinants of learning achievement; (3) to study the relationship between resource allocation and factors affecting learning achievement; (4) to study the causes of learning achievement disparity among schools; (5) to propose the alternative resource allocation . Data used for estimating the educational production function and calculating descriptive statistics were obtained from 50 district schools , 44 private schools, 24 public schools; 354 administrators and teachers ; 3,368 students' parents; Bureau of Education Testing; 6 administrators and 6 experts. The findings indicated that the crucial determinants for Thai language achievement for all schools were : preschool education, student's gender, administrator's education specialization , socio economic status, administrator's and teacher's experience, and students-computer ratio, while the determinants for mathematics achievement were : preschool education, administrator's education specialization, student's gender, socio-economic status, students-computer ratio, class size, administrator's experience, teacher's experience, and workload. Students' achievement in the large schools was higher than the medium and small schools. The main determinants of student's achievement that were similar to all schools under different authority were socio-economic status. administrator's education specialization , administrator's experience, teacher's experience, and preschool education . From the administrators' and teachers' opinion, determinants of learning achievement were students' enjoyment. teacher's motivation , administrator 's initiation, administrators and teachers acquiring new knowledge, and facilities provided for students that support self-learning . So far the allocation of resources was not coinciding with factors affecting students' achievement. The causes of different learning achievement among the school in respect to management were due to administrator 's experience, administrators and teachers acquiring new knowledge, leadership, teamwork, supervision, and relationship with parents and community . Thus, to increase students' learning achievement, the government has to allocate budget for supporting poor students, preschool education, and skill development for administrators and teachers, and provision of appropriate educational equipment.