Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates from PISA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hanushek, Eric A.; Link, Susanne; Woessmann, Ludger
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Munich; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.08.002
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 212-232
• 关键词: School autonomy; decentralization; Developing countries; Educational production; International student achievement tests; Panel estimation

摘要

Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we estimate the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results suggest that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These estimates are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.