Municipal and private sector response to decentralization and school choice

A large number of developing nations are in the process of decentralizing basic education, with the aim of diversifying revenue sources and introducing greater accountability and efficiency. This is especially true in Latin America, where Chile introduced the first significant reform in 1981. This reform kept most of the responsibility for educational finance with the Ministry of Education but transferred the responsibility for delivering services to municipalities and non-profit, private schools. In response to this reform, municipalities increased their finance of public schools, and the supply of subsidized private education increased dramatically. By 1990, enrollment in subsidized private schools represented about one-third of total primary-secondary school enrollments. This paper examines the effects of the reform. Municipal finance, which is closely tied to municipal fiscal capacity, has created inequities in school expenditures even though it represents only 10% of total revenues. Variations in the private school market share across municipalities are principally explained by the ease of market entry, family socioeconomic status, and the relative performance of public and private schools; this model does not offer a satisfactory explanation of the growth in private school enrollments in Chile over time. The effect of the reform on cost-effectiveness is ambiguous. Ministry of Education non-teacher employment declined by over half, while cognitive tests also declined. There is some evidence that the growth in private school enrollments may have improved overall efficiency since private schools are found to be slightly more cost-effective than public schools.     

The “Developing” Achievement Gap: Colombian Voucher Reform

The achievement gap in many developing countries is defined in terms of rich/poor and public/private. The prevailing explanation for the “developing” achievement gap is an underfunded, inefficient, and/or inadequately supplied public school sector. Via an analysis of a Colombian voucher experiment, this article examines the extent to which income-contingent vouchers can narrow the achievement gap and provide a cost-effective method for increasing secondary school enrollments. Despite structural and implementation flaws, which diminish the program's impact on achievement and enrollments, its successes strengthen the argument that implementing an income-contingent voucher program can help narrow the achievement gap in developing countries. To cost-effectively increase enrollments, however, significant modifications and expansions to the program would be necessary—as explained in the conclusion of this article.     

Cross-Domain Trajectories of Students’ Ability Self-Concepts and Intrinsic Values in Math and Language Arts

Different cross-domain trajectories in the development of students’ ability self-concepts (ASCs) and their intrinsic valuing of math and language arts were examined in a cross-sequential study spanning Grades 1 through 12 (n = 1,069). Growth mixture modeling analyses identified a Moderate Math Decline/Stable High Language Arts class and a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline class for students’ ASC trajectories. Students’ intrinsic value trajectories included a Strong Math Decline/Language Arts Decline Leveling Off, a Moderate Math Decline/Strong Language Arts Decline, and a Stable Math and Language Arts Trajectories class. These classes differed with regard to student characteristics, including gender, family background, and math and reading aptitudes. They also resulted in different high school math course enrollments, career aspirations, and adult careers.     

家庭背景、学校氛围如何影响学生抗逆力? ——基于PISA 2018的实证分析

基于PISA 2018中国四省市数据,对家庭背景、学校氛围与学生抗逆力的影响机制进行分析.研究发现,对标OECD国家进行比较,中国四省市抗逆力表现略低于国际水平;家庭背景层面,家庭文化资本和经济资本对学生抗逆力提升更有效,而家庭社会资本则无显著影响;学校层面,学校氛围能显著正向影响学生抗逆力;学校氛围和家庭背景对学生抗...     

Turnaround Policy and Practice: A Case Study of Turning Around a Failing School with English-Language-Learners

In an era of school reform and high stakes accountability, the major challenge in education is to turnaround the nation’s lowest-performing schools. National policy provides abundant resources with often restrictive prerequisites. Research indicates that quality principals and teachers are the most important factors for turning around the lowest performing schools; however there is little research in how to turnaround failing schools with high enrollments of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. The purpose of this study is to understand how demography, policy and practices affect the educational edge of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. How do the practices of a school leader who is professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive affect turnaround for a failing schools? How does the personal and professional background of a Latino principal affect student performance in a failing school? This research conducted a qualitative case study to include principal interviews, principal observations, teacher interviews, and the use of state and school archival data. Analyses included organizing data into data themes and triangulating data themes, using principal background, principal professional/cultural beliefs and practices, school context, teacher data, and archival data. Conclusions confirm the need to conduct research to document and define the performances for professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive principal models and their effect on student performance in historically failing schools. In addition, policymakers need to consider the organizational contexts of professional/culturally/linguistically responsive leadership and teaching models as turnaround school models.     

Path analysis and residual plotting as methods of environmental scanning in higher education: An illustration with applications and enrollments

In this study we propose using path analysis and residual plotting as methods supporting environmental scanning in strategic planning for higher education institutions. As an illustration, path models of three levels of independent variables, that is, socioeconomic background, current economic variables, and educational variables, are developed. The dependent variables measuring applications and enrollments at a research university, Virginia Tech, and enrollments at four-year institutions in Virginia are regressed on the independent variables. The residuals from the multiple regression models are plotted on the county maps of Virginia to identify the geographic regions in which the applications and enrollments at Virginia Tech and the enrollments in colleges and universities of Virginia are higher or lower than expected according to the models. The implications of the variables in the models and the geographic distributions of residuals for strategic planning decisions are discussed.     

Are measured school effects just sorting?: Causality and correlation in the National Education Longitudinal Survey

Youth who share a school and neighborhood often show similar levels of academic achievement, but some studies find all or most of this correlation is due to sorting (not causation). We analyze the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) in three ways to decompose sorting versus causality: We first control for much richer measures of family background than other analysts have used. We next use characteristics of the students’ future high school as an instrument for family background (as future high school quality is correlated with unobserved family background but cannot cause junior high test scores). Finally, we use regression and semi-nonparametric matching methods to look at changes in test score when youth change schools. The results create a collage of evidence that a significant fraction of the correlation is causal.     

DOES FAMILY BACKGROUND MATTER FOR LEARNING IN EAST AFRICA?

ABSTRACT

The extent to which differences in family background characteristics explain differences in learning outcomes between children captures the extent of equality in educational opportunities. This study uses large-scale data on literacy and numeracy outcomes for children of school age across East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) to investigate the contribution of family background to learning differences. We find that learning differences between children from less-advantaged households and those from more-advantaged households equals around one year or more of effective learning on average. Even so, family background does not fully explain why children of school starting age display large differences in learning between countries.     

增加公共教育经费有助于改善教育的代际流动性吗?

近年来,越来越少的农村学生能够进入我国的顶尖高校,农村孩子的教育问题引起了社会的广泛关注。随着我国不断加大在农村地区教育经费的投入,家庭背景是否仍是制约农村学生教育抉择的关键因素是目前迫切需要回答的问题。我们通过中国住户收入分配数据库,分析了从1988年到2007年间家庭背景对子女上高中的影响趋势。结果发现在控制了一系列相关变量后,家庭背景对农村子女上高中的影响程度呈现倒U型变化,在最近几年开始呈现下降趋势,但父母受教育程度的影响一直很稳定,没有显著变化。此外,将孩子分成不同年龄组的回归结果,得到了相似的结论。本文构建了一个两阶段的教育选择模型,从教育经费的视角对此现象进行了剖析。发现当公共教育经费增加时,父母收入对孩子受教育程度的影响会减弱,而父母受教育程度的影响与公共教育经费无关。上述结论意味着,公共教育经费的增加,可以在一定程度上减弱家庭背景的影响,增加社会阶层的流动性,但当公共教育经费增加到较高水平时,对家庭背景的影响可能会非常微弱。这些结论具有很强的政策含义。我国政府在21世纪初对义务教育投入了大量的经费,经验分析的结果表明,家庭收入对孩子接受高中教育的影响在2007年左右已经不显著。分不同年龄组的回归结果显示,家庭收入对1986年以后出生的孩子的影响在显著下降,说明我国公共教育经费的投入取得了显著的成效。同时,这也隐含地表明今后的教育投入应该有所侧重,对贫困地区、中西部落后地区增加义务教育阶段的公共教育经费,可能会提高孩子的受教育程度;但对于发达地区,增加义务教育阶段的公共教育经费的效果可能会不明显。     

Promoting scientific faculties: Does it work? Evidence from Italy

In reaction to the OECD-wide declining trend in scientific enrollments, the Italian government launched a policy in 2005 to promote the study of science at the university. The policy promoted extra-curricular activities for secondary school students in Chemistry, Physics, Math and Materials Science. This article evaluates the policy impact on students’ choice of the field of study. We use an intention to treat effect and administrative data on enrollment at two Italian universities. The findings indicate that the probability of enrolling in a scientific track increases by 3% for males. We find no effect for females. Participating in activities in Math increases the probability of enrolling in Physics and vice versa. The treatment had also a positive impact on enrollments in Pharmacy. The results suggest that the policy was successful in correcting the labour market expectations of male students.     

The relative and absolute risks of disadvantaged family background and low levels of school resources on student literacy

There has been a long-lasting debate of whether the effects of family background are larger than those of school resources, and whether these effects are a function of national income level. In this study, we bring a new perspective to the debate by using the concepts of relative risk and population attributable risk in estimating family and school effects. The study uses data from the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), a large international comparative study of the skills of 15-year-old students in 43 countries. The study finds that: (1) there is a curvilinear association between family effects, measured by both relative and attributable risk, and national income level; (2) there is no association between school effects and national income level; (3) the risk associated with low levels of family background is larger than that of low levels of school resources, regardless of national income level.     

Educational inequality in Colombia: family background,school quality and student achievement in Cartagena

This study examines the effects of family socio‐economic disadvantage and differences in school resources on student achievement in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Using data from the ICFES and C‐600 national databases, we conduct a multilevel analysis to determine the unique contribution of school‐level factors above and beyond family background. The results from the hierarchical linear models show that while family socio‐economic background significantly affects student achievement, school composition and school resources explain as much as half of the effects of family background. More specifically, the achievement gap in public schools is explained in large part by differential resource allocation and concentration of poor students in public schools, which in turn lowers student achievement.     

城乡初中生教育期望的差异研究:个人、家庭与社会结构的影响

本研究考查了我国初中生教育期望的城乡差异现状,并从个人家庭与学校社会两个视角探究了差异产生的机制。研究发现,我国初中生对于获得普通高等教育的期望存在显著的城乡差异,城市户籍学生的教育期望高于农村及流动学生。这种差异受学生认知能力、家庭背景及学校环境共同影响,其中家庭背景的影响大于认知能力,学校户籍结构的影响作用最为明显。研究认为,营造良好学校教育氛围、缓解学校户籍分割、增强学校融合是促进我国教育公平与社会公平的重要举措。     

Ease of grading and enrollments in secondary school science I. A model and its possible tests

Low enrollments in the physical sciences have been a professional concern for some time, primarily because of their adverse effect on the general education of high school students, but also because of their effect on the teaching of the physical sciences and their possible impact on vocational choice, notably that of potential teachers. A model that relates ease of grading in the sciences to science enrollments is presented. Its central assumption is that an appropriate measure of ease of grading in a science course is the discrepancy between students' grade values in the science course and their grade values in other academic subjects, averaged across students in the course. Consideration of possible tests of the model leads to the conclusion that the most sensible initial test will be provided by a correlational study of the effects of ease of grading, following the secondary career of students in a single graduating class from a number of high schools by using data in existing school records.     

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.     

Costs and economies of scale in Turkey's postsecondary vocational schools

The study reported in this paper examines the institutional cost structures of the postsecondary vocational education system in Turkey. The study uses a single-output quadratic cost function to analyze 65 individual vocational schools located within the 28 existing universities. Appropriate controls for institutional quality, discretionary allocation of staffing resources, the degree of technical instruction in the cirriculum, and regional variation are also included. Both average and marginal costs for each school are estimated over relevant ranges of student enrollments for determing prospective degrees of economies of scale. The findings should help policy makers in Turkey determine which vocational schools can reap efficiencies by an expansion (or contraction) of their student enrollments.     

关于小学教师培养起点的研究述评

探讨小学教师的培养起点问题,主要是探讨小学教师从何时开始培养较为适宜的问题。其研究核心基点应该是小学教师专业特性和培养规律,也就是说,坚持初中起点还是选择高中起点,要看哪种做法更适宜培养小学教师,更符合小学教师专业特性和培养规律,更富有实效。从我国目前的研究来看,无论基于理论成果还是实践成果,倾向于以初中毕业生作为起点来培养小学教师,认为这样的模式更有依据,更有成效。我们应该倡导开放的观点,进一步研究小学教师专业特性和培养规律,对初中起点的培养优势实施战略保护,为高中起点的小学教师培养试点预留空间,鼓励两种模式的进一步探索。     

Students’ Occupational Aspirations: Can Family Relationships Account for Differences Between Immigrant and Socioeconomic Groups?

Immigrant background and disadvantaged socioeconomic background are two key predictors of poorer school achievement in Europe. However, the former is associated with higher while the latter is associated with lower aspirations. This study asks whether family relationships account for this difference. Data come from 5,926 students in Germany and Sweden, eliciting indicators of family background and relationships at age 14–15 years (2011) and occupational aspirations 1 year later. High aspirations were found among students of non-European background and students with higher parental occupational status. Structural equation models showed that while immigrant families had greater parental aspirations and encouragement, family cohesion, and parental monitoring, only parental aspirations mediated the effects of family background.     

Improving College Enrollment of At-Risk Students at the School Level

Many federal, state, and local education policy priorities are aimed at preparing high school students, especially those at risk, to be college- and career-ready when they graduate from high school. A number of programs across different institutional entities have been initiated to achieve these goals, encompassing individual partnerships with schools. Many of these programs include a variety of interventions, ranging from college and course counseling to college visits. Although there have been some evaluations of the larger federal programs, and some state and district programs, few have examined national observational data on the impact of these programmatic efforts on college enrollments. This study uses the HSLS:09 database to investigate the impact of specific treatments in at-risk schools on college enrollments. Results show that several of these programmatic initiatives have a positive effect on college enrollment; however, the effects are small compared to some of those reported by other national studies.     

Major Influences on Attitudes Toward Science

This research study investigated the attitudes toward science of 8th-grade students in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, and Korea, based on recent TIMSS data, and suggests a model of family and school influences on their attitudes. The structural equation model contained 3 exogenous constructs – family’s educational background, aspiration, school climate – and 2 endogenous constructs – teaching and student attitudes toward science. Educational background, aspiration, and school climate were shown to have a direct effect on attitudes, while teaching was shown to directly affect attitudes and to be affected by aspiration and school climate.