The relationship between school resources such as learning materials, computers,
and student-teacher ratio and student performance has been shown to be important
(e.g., Hanushek, 1986, 2003; Hanushek & Woessmann, 2007; Krueger,
2003). In this article, school resources and their relationship with student
achievement are compared for Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) schools using
data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement’s (IEA) 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) in the context of eff orts aimed at reducing the diff erences in resources
in schools in Israel.
Results of bivariate analyses show some diff erences regarding the availability of
school resources between the three groups of schools under review, namely PA
schools, Israeli Arab schools and Israeli Hebrew schools. Moreover, results of the
multivariate hierarchical linear model analyses reveal that only shortages regarding
computer hardware, software and support have a signifi cant relationship
with mathematics achievement of Grade 8 students once the socio-economic
level of their schools and home backgrounds are taken into account. Finally, these
eff ects are found for the Israeli Arab schools and the PA schools but not for the
Israeli Hebrew schools.