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Size, Performance and Effectiveness: Cost-Constrained Measures of Best-Practice Performance and Secondary-School Size

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Author Info
Richard R. Barnett
J. Colin Glass
Roger I. Snowdon
Karl S. Stringer
Abstract

Current education policy in the UK requires secondary schools to strive for 'effectiveness' or 'best-practice' performance in producing educational outcomes, while securing cost efficiency in input use when doing so. Given this double policy objective, the present study uses data envelopment analysis to generate performance scores for schools relative to cost-constrained best-practice benchmarks that simultaneously take account of both outcome effectiveness and cost efficiency. The empirical results, relating to the set of Northern Ireland secondary schools, indicate that a positive relationship between effectiveness-efficiency performance scores and secondary school size holds across a range of educational outcomes. Larger schools were still found to outperform smaller ones, on average, when schools were grouped according to gender, school type, and absence/presence of a sixth form. The findings imply that it is inappropriate to assess the performance of schools without taking into account the impact of school size on such performance.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Education Economics.

Volume (Year): 10 (2002)
Issue (Month): 3 (December)
Pages: 291-311
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Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:10:y:2002:i:3:p:291-311

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  1. Steve Bradley & Jim Taylor, 1998. "The effect of school size on exam performance in secondary schools," Working Papers 000002, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
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  2. Simar, L. & Wilson, P.W., 1999. "Statistical Inference in Nonparametric Frontier Models: the State of the Art," Papers 9904, Catholique de Louvain - Institut de statistique.
  3. Steve Bradley & Jim Taylor, 1998. "Cost functions in secondary schools," Working Papers 000003, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
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  4. Armstrong, David M, 1999. "School Performance and Staying on: A Micro Analysis for Northern Ireland," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 67(2), pages 203-30, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Martyn Andrews & Steve Bradley, . "Modelling the Transition from School and the Demand for Training in the UK (creed)," Working Papers ec1/95, Department of Economics, University of Lancaster.
  6. Smith, Peter & Mayston, David, 1987. "Measuring efficiency in the public sector," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 181-189. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. L Feinstein & James Symons, 1997. "Attainment in Secondary School," CEP Discussion Papers dp0341, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  8. Fare, R. & Grosskopf, S. & Lovell, C. A. K., 1988. "An indirect approach to the evaluation of producer performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 71-89, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Hanushek, Eric A, 1992. "The Trade-Off between Child Quantity and Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 84-117, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. McVicar, Duncan, 2000. "Are Secondary Schools In Northern Ireland Too Small? A Microeconomic Analysis Of School Size And Career Choice At Sixteen," ERSA conference papers ersa00p149, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
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