This study examined whether school digital learning environments were associated with subject-specific achievement and moderated the associations of private tutoring expenditures and class attitude with achievement among South Korean elementary school students.
Using linked Seoul Education Longitudinal Study data, two-level hierarchical linear models were estimated separately for Korean language, mathematics and English. Complete-case samples comprised 2,570–2,572 students nested within 113 schools. Models controlled for Grade 5 prior achievement at the student and school-mean levels and included socioeconomic, learning and school-compositional covariates and two school-level digital indicators. The Holm correction was applied to 12 cross-level interaction tests.
Prior achievement was consistently associated with subsequent achievement across subjects. Class attitude was positively associated with all three outcomes, whereas private tutoring expenditures were positively associated only with mathematics and English achievement. Neither teachers' educational technology (EdTech)use nor digital environment development showed significant direct associations with achievement. No cross-level interaction remained significant after the Holm correction, providing no robust evidence of digital-environment buffering in any subject.
This study tests digital conditions across subjects while accounting for prior achievement. The null findings for the digital indicators caution against assuming that general EdTech use, infrastructure and organizational support automatically improve achievement or reduce inequality. The study distinguishes broad digital conditions from the pedagogical quality of specific practices.
