Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization

According to a theoretical model, school autonomy and parental participation in schools, can increase student learning through separate channels. Greater school autonomy increases the rent that can be distributed among stakeholders in the school, w...

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Main Authors: Eskeland, Gunnar S., Filmer, Deon
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/01/1687159/autonomy-participation-learning-argentine-schools-findings-implications-decentralization
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15727
id okr-10986-15727
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-157272021-04-23T14:03:19Z Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization Eskeland, Gunnar S. Filmer, Deon DECENTRALIZATION IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATIONAL TESTING SCHOOL HOLDING POWER SCHOOL PARTICIPATION SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS AUTONOMY PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS CROSS SECTION ANALYSIS EDUCATIONAL EQUALIZATION MOTHERS' EDUCATION EDUCATION & THE POOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEST STATISTICS VARIABLE RATES ACTIVISM AUTONOMY BINDING CHILD CARE CLASSROOMS CONSTITUENCY CONSULTATION CURRICULUM DECENTRALIZATION DECISION-MAKING EDUCATION REFORM EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION SYSTEMS EDUCATIONAL SERVICES ENROLLMENT EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES FAMILIES INDEXES INNOVATIONS LAWS LEARNING LEARNING OUTCOMES LET MAYORS MOTHERS MOTIVATION NATIONAL CURRICULUM NATIONAL EDUCATION PAPERS PARENTS POLITICAL ECONOMY POLITICIANS PRIMARY SCHOOL PRIMARY SCHOOLING PRIMARY SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS PUBLIC SCHOOLS PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY OF LIFE REASONING RURAL AREAS RURAL SCHOOLS SCHOOL PERFORMANCE SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECONDARY SCHOOLS SMALL SCHOOLS SPORTS STUDENT PARTICIPATION TEACHER TEACHER MANAGEMENT TEACHER TRAINING TEACHERS TEACHING TEACHING PRACTICE TEST SCORES TEXTBOOKS UNIONS VOUCHERS WORKERS According to a theoretical model, school autonomy and parental participation in schools, can increase student learning through separate channels. Greater school autonomy increases the rent that can be distributed among stakeholders in the school, while institutions for parental participation (such as school board) empower parents to command a larger share of this surplus - for example, through student learning. Using a rich cross-sectional data set from Argentine schools (sixth and seventh grades), the authors find that autonomy, and participation raise student test scores for a given level of inputs, in a multiplicative way, consistent with the model. Autonomy has a direct effect on learning (but not for very low levels of participation), while participation affects learning only through the mediation of the effect of autonomy. The results are robust to a variety of robustness checks, and for sub-samples of children from poor households, children of uneducated mothers, schools with low mean family wealth, and public schools. It is possible that autonomy, and participation are endogenously determined, and that this biases the results - the data available do not allow this to be ruled out with certainty. Plausible predicators of autonomy, and participation are also plausible predicators of test scores, and they fail tests for the over-identifying restrictions. Heuristically argued, however, the potential for correlation with unobserved variables may be limited: the data set is rich in observed variables, and autonomy and participation show very low correlation with observed variables. Subject to these caveats, the results may be relevant to decentralization in two ways. First, as decentralization moves responsibility from the central, toward the provincial or local government, the results should be directly relevant if the decentralization increases autonomy, and participation in schools. Second, if the results are interpreted as representing a more general effect of moving decision-making toward users, and the local community, the results are relevant even if little happens to autonomy, and participation in schools. More important, perhaps, the authors illustrate empirically the importance of knowing who is empowered when higher levels of government loosen control. 2013-09-09T20:22:12Z 2013-09-09T20:22:12Z 2002-01 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/01/1687159/autonomy-participation-learning-argentine-schools-findings-implications-decentralization http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15727 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2766 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic DECENTRALIZATION IN MANAGEMENT
EDUCATIONAL TESTING
SCHOOL HOLDING POWER
SCHOOL PARTICIPATION
SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS
AUTONOMY
PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS
CROSS SECTION ANALYSIS
EDUCATIONAL EQUALIZATION
MOTHERS' EDUCATION
EDUCATION & THE POOR
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
TEST STATISTICS
VARIABLE RATES ACTIVISM
AUTONOMY
BINDING
CHILD CARE
CLASSROOMS
CONSTITUENCY
CONSULTATION
CURRICULUM
DECENTRALIZATION
DECISION-MAKING
EDUCATION REFORM
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION SYSTEMS
EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
ENROLLMENT
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
FAMILIES
INDEXES
INNOVATIONS
LAWS
LEARNING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
LET
MAYORS
MOTHERS
MOTIVATION
NATIONAL CURRICULUM
NATIONAL EDUCATION
PAPERS
PARENTS
POLITICAL ECONOMY
POLITICIANS
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOLING
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
PRINCIPALS
PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
PUBLIC SERVICES
QUALITY OF LIFE
REASONING
RURAL AREAS
RURAL SCHOOLS
SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
SCHOOLING
SCHOOLS
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SMALL SCHOOLS
SPORTS
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
TEACHER
TEACHER MANAGEMENT
TEACHER TRAINING
TEACHERS
TEACHING
TEACHING PRACTICE
TEST SCORES
TEXTBOOKS
UNIONS
VOUCHERS
WORKERS
spellingShingle DECENTRALIZATION IN MANAGEMENT
EDUCATIONAL TESTING
SCHOOL HOLDING POWER
SCHOOL PARTICIPATION
SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS
AUTONOMY
PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS
CROSS SECTION ANALYSIS
EDUCATIONAL EQUALIZATION
MOTHERS' EDUCATION
EDUCATION & THE POOR
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
TEST STATISTICS
VARIABLE RATES ACTIVISM
AUTONOMY
BINDING
CHILD CARE
CLASSROOMS
CONSTITUENCY
CONSULTATION
CURRICULUM
DECENTRALIZATION
DECISION-MAKING
EDUCATION REFORM
EDUCATION SECTOR
EDUCATION SYSTEMS
EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
ENROLLMENT
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
FAMILIES
INDEXES
INNOVATIONS
LAWS
LEARNING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
LET
MAYORS
MOTHERS
MOTIVATION
NATIONAL CURRICULUM
NATIONAL EDUCATION
PAPERS
PARENTS
POLITICAL ECONOMY
POLITICIANS
PRIMARY SCHOOL
PRIMARY SCHOOLING
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
PRINCIPALS
PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
PUBLIC SERVICES
QUALITY OF LIFE
REASONING
RURAL AREAS
RURAL SCHOOLS
SCHOOL PERFORMANCE
SCHOOLING
SCHOOLS
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
SMALL SCHOOLS
SPORTS
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
TEACHER
TEACHER MANAGEMENT
TEACHER TRAINING
TEACHERS
TEACHING
TEACHING PRACTICE
TEST SCORES
TEXTBOOKS
UNIONS
VOUCHERS
WORKERS
Eskeland, Gunnar S.
Filmer, Deon
Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2766
description According to a theoretical model, school autonomy and parental participation in schools, can increase student learning through separate channels. Greater school autonomy increases the rent that can be distributed among stakeholders in the school, while institutions for parental participation (such as school board) empower parents to command a larger share of this surplus - for example, through student learning. Using a rich cross-sectional data set from Argentine schools (sixth and seventh grades), the authors find that autonomy, and participation raise student test scores for a given level of inputs, in a multiplicative way, consistent with the model. Autonomy has a direct effect on learning (but not for very low levels of participation), while participation affects learning only through the mediation of the effect of autonomy. The results are robust to a variety of robustness checks, and for sub-samples of children from poor households, children of uneducated mothers, schools with low mean family wealth, and public schools. It is possible that autonomy, and participation are endogenously determined, and that this biases the results - the data available do not allow this to be ruled out with certainty. Plausible predicators of autonomy, and participation are also plausible predicators of test scores, and they fail tests for the over-identifying restrictions. Heuristically argued, however, the potential for correlation with unobserved variables may be limited: the data set is rich in observed variables, and autonomy and participation show very low correlation with observed variables. Subject to these caveats, the results may be relevant to decentralization in two ways. First, as decentralization moves responsibility from the central, toward the provincial or local government, the results should be directly relevant if the decentralization increases autonomy, and participation in schools. Second, if the results are interpreted as representing a more general effect of moving decision-making toward users, and the local community, the results are relevant even if little happens to autonomy, and participation in schools. More important, perhaps, the authors illustrate empirically the importance of knowing who is empowered when higher levels of government loosen control.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Eskeland, Gunnar S.
Filmer, Deon
author_facet Eskeland, Gunnar S.
Filmer, Deon
author_sort Eskeland, Gunnar S.
title Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
title_short Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
title_full Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
title_fullStr Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
title_full_unstemmed Autonomy, Participation, and Learning in Argentine Schools : Findings and Their Implications for Decentralization
title_sort autonomy, participation, and learning in argentine schools : findings and their implications for decentralization
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/01/1687159/autonomy-participation-learning-argentine-schools-findings-implications-decentralization
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15727
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