The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach

Charters represent an expansion of public school choice, offering free, publicly funded educational alternatives to traditional public schools. One relatively unexplored research question concerning charter schools asks whether charter schools are more efficient suppliers of educational services than are traditional public schools. The potential relative efficiency advantage of charters vis-a-vis traditional publics is one of the mechanisms that supports the hypotheses that charters could improve performance for their students while using the same or fewer resources, and that the systemic effect of charters could lead to improved outcomes for traditional public students without requiring an increase in education sector resources.     

Measuring the effect of charter schools on public school student achievement in an urban environment: Evidence from New York City

This paper uses student level data from New York City to study the relationship between a public school losing enrollment to charter school competitors and the academic achievement of students who remain enrolled in it. Geographic measures most often used to study the effect of school choice policies on public school student achievement are not well suited for densely populated urban environments. I adopt a direct approach and measure charter school exposure as the percentage of a public school's students who exited for a charter school at the end of the previous year. Depending on model specification, I find evidence that students in schools losing more students to charter schools either are unaffected by the competitive pressures of the choice option or benefit mildly in both math and English.     

Using lotteries to evaluate schools of choice: Evidence from a national study of charter schools

This paper draws on data and experiences observing and analyzing school lotteries from the National Evaluation of Charter School Impacts (Gleason et al., 2010) to describe the challenges associated with lottery-based research. In that study, covering 36 charter middle schools in 15 states, we found that charter schools did not affect student achievement or behavior on average, although there was substantial variation across schools. In this paper, we discuss the prevalence of oversubscribed charter schools at the time the study was conducted (the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 school years), which was lower than commonly reported. We then describe how the sample of schools that participated in the study compared to all other charter middle schools nationwide, to provide some insight into the generalizabilty of findings from lottery-based studies. In general, oversubscribed charter schools were more likely to be located in urban areas and serve a higher-achieving population of students than those without excess demand. We also describe common features of school lotteries and waitlists, and examine implications of these features for a school's ability to support a lottery-based study. Finally, we summarize lessons learned for conducting lottery-based research on charter schools, drawing on our observations of the schools’ lotteries and analysis of the data from these lotteries.     

The development of schools for all

Abstract

The article contains a support experiment in a series of schools, aimed at making them increasingly inclusive, i.e., capable of responding to all their boys and girls needs. The study follows the school improvement approach in which school assessment does not mean control or supervision but is a previous phase to the introduction of changes which improve how the school operates. The project, promoted by UNESCO, has been undertaken in eight countries located in different continents. In the article, particular emphasis is placed on the importance of each school context and the meaninglessness of attempting to carry out assessment and support processes for the improvement of schools within a totally homogeneous framework. In the project one of the support techniques shown to the teaching staff was the presentation of a series of scenes within schools in very varied countries, providing them with the opportunity to reflect on their practice by comparing it with others.     

The press, public knowledge and the grant maintained schools policy

This article examines as a critical case how newspapers reported the grant maintained schools policy. It argues that claims that press reporting of educational issues is frequently unfair are only partially substantiated. The quality press is more likely to be internally inconsistent and contradictory in its reportage of education policy and, on occasion, to inhibit debate through discourses of omision.     

学校道德教育接受效果的反思

道德教育的有效过程是道德教育者传递道德教育信息与受教育者接受道德教育信息的统一。因此,学校道德教育要走出实效性低迷的现状,关键在于调整道德教育的研究视角,注重从接受的角度出发,立足于学生道德接受心理研究的基础上来改进学校道德教育。     

浅谈传统玩具在中小学科学教学中的应用

中国传统玩具是中华民族传统智慧的结晶。合理地运用传统具,可以培养学生的观察、思维和创新能力,促进学生主动学习、探索。本文对传统玩具进行了分类,并结合具体的课程,探讨了在中小学科学教学中的应用。     

公平、绩效、自由选择:美国加州特许学校的价值分析

本文以加州为案例,综合美国学者的有关研究从公平、绩效、自由选择三个维度对特许学校进行价值分析,发现在提供特色教育服务、促进种族融合等方面,特许学校与传统公立学校差异不明显;但在拓展家庭选择、鼓励家长参与、补偿弱势群体、增进边缘学生的学习机会与经验等方面,加州特许学校基本达到预期的政策目标,并逐步显示出超越传统公立学校的绩效。     

Do local contributions affect the efficiency of public primary schools?

Are public schools that rely on local resources for a greater share of their financing more cost-effective? Could financial decentralization lead to more efficient schools? This paper attempts to answer these questions using cost, financial sources and student achievement data from Philippine primary schools, which are financed primarily from central sources but which also raise funds from other sources, to differing degrees. It concludes that schools which rely more heavily on local sources, such as contributions from the local school board, municipal government, parent-teacher associations (PTA) and other sources are more efficient—i.e. have lower cost, holding constant for enrollment and quality. A 1% increase in the share of financing coming from local sources will lead to a decline in total costs of 0.135%, or about the cost of providing for a place for one more student.     

The cost efficiency impact of the university operation fund on public universities in Taiwan

This study uses the stochastic frontier multiple-product cost function that is modeled after Battese and Coelli [Battese, G. E., & Coelli, T. J. (1995). A model for technical inefficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production for panel data. Empirical Economics 20(2), 325–332.] in order to empirically measure the cost efficiency of the University Operation Fund (UOF) on Taiwan's public universities.The original purpose of the UOF's implementation was to reduce the government's financial burden by increasing cost efficiency in higher education institutions. By nature, the UOF differs from the traditional governmental budget regimes in three major respects. First of all, institutional operations and programs are no longer fully funded by government appropriations. Secondly, the universities can now retain surplus resources. Finally, the regulations on the use of funds raised by each institution itself are now less cumbersome. These differences provide universities with incentives for higher cost-efficiency and more active fund-raising.The empirical results from our study, which are based on panel data gathered from 34 public universities during the academic years 1992–2000, suggest that the adoption of the UOF has had a significantly negative impact on cost efficiency.     

职业学校《创新与创业》课程教学效果分析

对职业学校开设《创新与创业》课程教学效果进行了统计分析,分析结果表明,在职业学校开设该门课程是十分必要的,它不仅可以提高学生的创新欲望、创新构想、创新情感、创新兴趣,而且有利于开发学生的创新潜能。并对开好这门课程提出了建议。     

The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good

ABSTRACT

A critique of Merrifield's essay is presented, along with a comprehensive rebuttal focusing on resources and innovation, charter school outcomes, and impacts on other schools.     

英国教育行动区计划改造薄弱学校的实践与启示

改进薄弱学校、促进教育均衡发展业已成为世界许多国家教育改革与发展的一项重要任务。英国教育行动区计划改造薄弱学校的实践在较短的时间内获得了一定的成效和社会认可,教育行动区的理念和行动设计值得我们借鉴。     

论公共权力监督的有效性

公共权力的一个基本悖论是公共权力的个体行使.由于公共权力的所有权与使用权相分离,衍生出一系列的问题.有效监督不能把官员假设成人民公仆,而应将其假设成贪官污吏;有效监督的条件必须是直接监督、独立监督、有权威的监督.我国公共权力监督失效是由于监督形式多且流于形式;各学科所推崇的以权力制约权力、以道德制约权力、以法律制约权力、以社会制约权力范式都存在一定缺陷.一种新的合力监督论值得研究.在我国,要使监督形成合力,一个有效途径是使监督法制化,即尽快制定《监督法》、《反干预法》和《信息公开法》.     

解读民办学校:产权经济学的视角

所谓民办学校是指以非政府组织或个人为办学主体，利用非财政性教育经费，学校产权归属及其安排不同于公办学校的专门提供系统教育服务的民间办学机制。我国民间办学存在营利型，准营利型和非营利型三种不同类型的民办学校，其中以准营利型民办学校居多。从产权经济学的视角来看，民办学校只有组成非营利性的教育组织，才是节约教育服务交易成本的一种最佳的制度安排。     

Unpacking the inequality among Turkish schools: Findings from PISA 2006

The study investigates the effects of certain school characteristics on students’ mathematics performances in Turkey in the PISA 2006 while controlling for family background and demographic characteristics. Three models of Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) are constructed. The results reveal that 55% of the variance is attributable to between-schools and the remaining 45% to individual student characteristics. About two-thirds of the 55% is explained by selectivity in admissions, time to study mathematics and students’ SES, gender and the geographical region. The findings are interpreted to explain why Turkish schools differed greatly in average student performance in PISA 2006 by using the conceptual efforts on school quality factors and family background characteristics.     

The dynamics and intricacy of budgeting in secondary schools in Lesotho: Case studies of three high schools

Abstract

This paper reports on the qualitative study that used in-depth interviews and document reviews on financial management practices in their schools. The participants were school principals of the case study schools. The findings of the study highlighted problems regarding the implementation of the policy – despite the Manual for Principals of Secondary Schools on financial planning and organisation, there are still problems regarding the collection and recording of school fees, budgeting, as well as a lack of administrative support. Findings further suggest that during the process of budgeting, power relations surface where principals play a dominant role in decision making regarding both departmental budgets and the school's main budget. Findings also suggest that lack of policies on the use of fees affects issues of budgeting in these schools. Moreover, most school principals are not provided with sufficient capacity building on financial matters, which cripples them in performing the budgetary tasks. The implications of the study are that there should be adequate capacity building of the principals in regards to budgeting and systems should be put in place regarding policies on how the school fees are to be used.     

The impact of internal migration on educational outcomes: Evidence from Turkey

Similar to the relation between the inflows of immigrants and educational outcomes that are found in immigration studies, the spatial distribution of internal migrants within a given country also may influence educational outcomes, at least in the short run. This could be particularly true in Turkey, where inter-provincial mobility is high and where striking differences in educational resources and therefore educational success across regions persist. Using the 1990 and 2000 Turkish Censuses, this study exploits variations over time in the inflow of internal migrants across provinces to identify the causal effect of internal migration on natives’ educational outcomes. The evidence suggests that the inflow of migrants lowers natives’ completion rates for middle school and high school. Evidence also indicates that while the negative effects appear to be greater among native children from low-SES households, native high-SES households are able to mitigate these adverse effects for their children. Furthermore, the estimated effects exhibit some differences by children's gender and migrant status.     

我国村级小学面临的困境与对策分析

分析了现阶段我国村级小学面临的困境:在校学生逐年减少,办学规模日趋萎缩;教师素质不高;办学条件差等。提出了:调整农村小学布局;加强村级小学师资队伍建设;以政府投入为主,改善村级小学办学条件。以此提高办学效益和教学质量,使村级小学走出目前的困境。