Relative efficiency among South African universities: A data envelopment analysis

Based on a sample of ten of the country's 21public universities, this article examines therelative efficiency of South Africanuniversities between 1994 and 1997 using DataEnvelopment Analysis. After outlining thenature and limitations of the technique, aseries of seven models were tested. Each used aconsolidation of the annual output of graduatesand research as the output variable and testedthis against various input variables. A highdegree of consistency and stability was found.Differences in efficiency during the four yearperiod were studied and the article concludeswith a discussion of four factors which appearcentral in explaining differences in efficiencybetween universities.     

Performance evaluation of compulsory education system in Taiwan: A modified dynamic network data envelopment analysis approach

The purpose of this study is to examine changes in the efficiency of Taiwan's compulsory education system between 2011 and 2020, identify the priority school sub-system for improving the system, and determine the input/output inefficiencies responsible for the sub-system inefficiencies. To achieve these objectives, a modified dynamic network data envelopment analysis model is used to assess the efficiency of the compulsory education systems and their internal primary and middle school sub-systems regulated by local governments. The findings indicate that both primary and middle school efficiency are crucial for evaluating the compulsory education system efficiency, and teacher and staff excesses in most local government's compulsory education systems are the primary sources of inefficiency. Therefore, the prompt adjustment of teacher and staff allocation based on student numbers is the primary approach to enhancing system efficiency.     

Assessing efficiency in the Spanish public universities through comparative non-radial and radial data envelopment analysis

In this study we have used data from Spanish public universities to assess their efficiency in a longitudinal framework between 2008/9–2014/15. To carry out the analysis, two windows data envelopment analysis and intertemporal, non-radial and radial analysis methodologies were compared. The main results show a significant deterioration in university efficiency from the 2012/13 academic year for the three proposed frontiers, with both methodologies. Some factors may explain these results, such as the ageing of teaching force and its low replacement rate of 10%, and the lack of incentives for young researchers who wish to pursue a research career, influenced by the presence of endogamy, in hiring or promotion. Finally, the resources necessary for the good governance of the Spanish public university with the consequent accountability of these, in terms of teaching, research and its transfer to society, could become a strategic issue that should be taken into account by all the actors involved.

     

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.     

基于DEA技术的城市集贸市场经营效率评估

利用数据包络分析模型评价各集贸市场的总体效率、技术效率、规模效率及规模效益状况 ,并针对非 DEA有效的市场提出了改进的可行性措施     

Evaluating banking efficiency with data envelopment analysis: evidence from Chongqing, P. R. China

Data envelopment analysis was applied to determine relative efficiencies of state-owned and joint-stock banks in Chongqing, P. R. China, during the years 1996 to 2000. We found that state-owned banks have low levels of efficiency when compared with joint-stock banks, but some joint-stock bank branches have low efficiency scores. Efficiency difference testing by using the Mann-Whitney rank order statistic indicates that the efficiency gap between state-owned and joint-stock banks is insignificant, which is characteristic of regional banks. We also presented some factors that may affect bank efficiency, and offer suggestions to improve bank management and efficiency.     

Data envelopment analysis on evaluating the efficiency of public hospitals in Tianjin,China

Public hospitals are the most important components of health systems and account for a large proportion of health resources in China. However, few researches on the efficiency assessment of public hospitals have been conducted in Tianjin, China. On the basis of the data of annual health service report in 2013 from the Ministry of Health, we measured the relative efficiency of the tertiary general public hospitals in Tianjin and estimated the magnitudes of output increase and/or input reduction by using data envelopment analysis to improve hospital efficiency. The main findings of this study indicate that more than half of the sample hospitals operate at a technical and scale efficiency, and the prevalent scale inefficiency is increasing returns to scale. Moreover, it is a prominent issue that health resource constraint and resource waste coexist. Health policy-makers and hospital administrators would need to address these problems by taking comprehensive measures such as optimizing the allocation of health resources, implementing hierarchical diagnosis and treatment, as well as innovating medical-service operating mechanism of public hospital to improve the people’s wellbeing.     

Measuring the efficiency of teaching activities in Italian universities: An information theoretic approach

The measurement of teaching efficiency of Italian universities has become a topic of much interest and debate in recent years. The aim of this study is to fully explore the potential of panel data in the analysis of teaching efficiency both by modelling human capital formation in the university as a series of sub-processes and by using various models to account for observed and unobserved factors which generate heterogeneity. The new approach for estimating a stochastic frontier model based on the Generalized Maximum Entropy method provides further insights into the measurement of university teaching performance. The evolution of efficiency throughout the entire study period was also analyzed.     

Application of data envelopment analysis on the indicators contributing to learning and teaching performance

This paper applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to explore the quantitative relative efficiency of 18 classes of freshmen students studying a course of English conversation in a university of Taiwan from the academic year 2004-2006. A diagram of teaching performance improvement mechanism is designed to identify key performance indicators for evaluation in order to help teachers concentrate their efforts on the formulated teaching suggestions. The sensitivity study highlights the priority of the richness of course contents over the other evaluated indicators. The performance improvement mechanism can help decision-makers to design educational policies.     

The impact of charter schools on the efficiency of traditional public schools: Evidence from Michigan

This paper examines the competitive effects of charter schools on the efficiency of traditional public schools. The analysis utilizes a statewide school-level longitudinal dataset of Michigan schools from 1994 to 2004. Fixed effect and two alternative estimation methods are employed. Overall, the results suggest that charter competition had a negative impact on student achievement and school efficiency in Michigan's traditional public schools. The effect is small or negligible in the short run, but becomes more substantial in the long run.     

Measuring the quality of education at two levels: A case study of primary schools in rural Ethiopia

This paper constructs two measures of the quality of education. The first one is a quality measure on the institutional level, it is derived inductively from the answers provided by school directors from rural Ethiopia on several interview questions. A cornerstone in my definition of school "quality" in a resource constraint environment is the degree of responsiveness to household needs. The second one is a measure of the quality of teaching at the individual level based on teaching attitudes and teaching behaviour of teachers. Pearson correlations show that school quality is positively correlated with increased enrolment but also that the quality of teaching is negatively correlated with increased pupil/teacher ratios. Schools in rural Ethiopia thus make a quantity-quality trade-off. Evidence suggests that class size is not the relevant variable in the quality debate, but time allocation of teachers is.     

Assessing the primary schools—A multi-dimensional approach: A school level analysis based on Indian data

Primary education is essential for the economic development in any country. Most studies give more emphasis to the final output (such as literacy, enrolment etc.) rather than the delivery of the entire primary education system. In this paper, we study the school level data from an Indian district, collected under the official DISE statistics. We use several indicators to capture the multi-dimensional aspects of primary school education system in India. Our analysis reveals serious discrepancies in deprivation, social and policy indicators that infringes upon efficiency in a negative way.     

Measuring the quality of education at two levels: A case study of primary schools in rural Ethiopia

This paper constructs two measures of the quality of education. The first one is a quality measure on the institutional level, it is derived inductively from the answers provided by school directors from rural Ethiopia on several interview questions. A cornerstone in my definition of school "quality" in a resource constraint environment is the degree of responsiveness to household needs. The second one is a measure of the quality of teaching at the individual level based on teaching attitudes and teaching behaviour of teachers. Pearson correlations show that school quality is positively correlated with increased enrolment but also that the quality of teaching is negatively correlated with increased pupil/teacher ratios. Schools in rural Ethiopia thus make a quantity-quality trade-off. Evidence suggests that class size is not the relevant variable in the quality debate, but time allocation of teachers is.     

农村中小学教学不公平问题、成因及对策

教育公平的真正实现体现在教学公平上。农村中小学较之城市中小学,在教学起点、教学过程和教学结果上都存在着事实上的不公平。究其原因,既有经济、社会、文化方面的,也有教育政策方面的。我们要采取切实可行的措施,对症下药,解决农村中小学教学不公平问题,以真正实现教育公平。     

A psychopedagogical approach to the teaching of a programming language in secondary schools

Abstract

Some of the aspects that characterize the novelty and the difficulties observed in the pupil/computer interaction in the school context are discussed from a psycho-cognitive and a psycho-pedagogical point of view. Special emphasis is put on the need to be particularly sensitive to the problems posed to pupils by the introduction of a formal language and by its use for programming and problem-solving.     

Estimating the impact of language of instruction in South African primary schools: A fixed effects approach

For many children around the world, access to higher education and the labour market depends on becoming fluent in a second language. In South Africa, the majority of children do not speak English as their first language but are required to undertake their final school-leaving examinations in English. Most schools offer mother-tongue instruction in the first three grades of school and then transition to English as the language of instruction in the fourth grade. Some schools use English as the language of instruction from the first grade. In recent years a number of schools have changed their policy, thus creating within-school, cross-grade variation in the language of instruction received in the early grades. Using longitudinal data from the population of South African primary schools and a fixed-effects approach, we find that mother tongue instruction in the early grades significantly improves English acquisition, as measured in grades 4, 5 and 6.     

Developing higher-order reading skills in mainstream primary schools: A metacognitive and self-regulatory approach

The ability to read relies upon not just decoding, but also comprehending text. Being a good comprehender requires strategic reading and implies the use of comprehension strategies. Research indicates that readers who are taught several reading comprehension strategies have better reading skills than those only taught a single strategy. One multiple strategy reading comprehension intervention was evaluated using a mixed-model quasi-experimental design. Intervention and control conditions groups were assessed at pre- and post-test points with standardised reading comprehension abilities, measured as the primary outcome measure. Implementation science principles were observed and evaluated. The schools all served areas of low socio-economic status. 74 pupils (aged 9–10) in five classes in four primary-level mainstream schools in a Scottish local authority were recruited as participants. Training was provided to participating schools by the first author and the programme was delivered in four sessions of 45 minutes per week for 8 weeks. An ANCOVA revealed a statistically significant effect of condition. Statistically significant scores were also evident in the secondary outcome measures of decoding of target word skills, children’s self-reports of their reading strategy use and recreational reading frequency. Implementation tools indicated that the intervention was acceptable and feasible to implement. Implications of introducing this multiple strategy reading comprehension programme and of the evaluation of implementation are discussed.     

A critical analysis of the use of formative assessment in schools

The literature is replete with exhortations about the need for teachers to use formative assessment. Clearly there are many advantages in doing so. Yet, empirical studies reveal that there is very little evidence that formative assessment is used frequently in classrooms. It is necessary to examine the reasons, why this is the case and to look for possible solutions to the problem.