IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econpa/v35y2016i3p256-268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Efficiency of Australian Schools: A Nationwide Analysis Using Gains in Test Scores of Students as Outputs

Author

Listed:
  • Son Nghiem
  • Ha Trong Nguyen
  • Luke B. Connelly

Abstract

This study examines the efficiency of schools in Australia and its determinants using the gain in NAPLAN test scores of students in 6,774 schools in 2009-2011. The results show that, based on empirical input-output combinations, the growth of NAPLAN test scores in Australian schools could be improved by 64 per cent by learning from best practice, on average. At the primary level, Catholic and independent schools are less efficient than public schools. At the secondary school level, though, public schools are found to be less efficient than other (non-public) schools.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Son Nghiem & Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly, 2016. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: A Nationwide Analysis Using Gains in Test Scores of Students as Outputs," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(3), pages 256-268, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:35:y:2016:i:3:p:256-268
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1759-3441.12143
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ryan, Chris, 2013. "What is behind the decline in student achievement in Australia?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 226-239.
    2. Paul W. Miller & Derby Voon, 2012. "Government Versus Non-Government Schools: A Nation-Wide Assessment Using A ustralian Naplan Data," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 147-166, September.
    3. Kalyan Chakraborty & John Poggio, 2008. "Efficiency and Equity in School Funding: A Case Study for Kansas," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 14(2), pages 228-241, May.
    4. Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, 2009. "Teacher qualifications and student achievement in urban elementary schools," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 103-115, September.
    5. Leigh, Andrew, 2010. "Estimating teacher effectiveness from two-year changes in students' test scores," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 480-488, June.
    6. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Qualifications and Middle School Student Achievement," Working Papers 671, RAND Corporation.
    7. Cherchye, Laurens & De Witte, Kristof & Ooghe, Erwin & Nicaise, Ides, 2010. "Efficiency and equity in private and public education: A nonparametric comparison," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 563-573, April.
    8. Hanushek, Eric A. & Kain, John F. & Rivkin, Steven G. & Branch, Gregory F., 2007. "Charter school quality and parental decision making with school choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 823-848, June.
    9. Kalyan Chakraborty & Vincent C. Blackburn, 2013. "Efficiency and Equity in Funding for Government Schools in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3-4), pages 127-142, December.
    10. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    11. H餩 Essid & Pierre Ouellette & St鰨ane Vigeant, 2013. "Small is not that beautiful after all: measuring the scale efficiency of Tunisian high schools using a DEA-bootstrap method," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 1109-1120, March.
    12. Pierre Ouellette & Valerie Vierstraete, 2005. "An evaluation of the efficiency of Quebec's school boards using the Data Envelopment Analysis method," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(14), pages 1643-1653.
    13. Andrew Worthington, 2001. "An Empirical Survey of Frontier Efficiency Measurement Techniques in Education," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(3), pages 245-268.
    14. Elder, Todd & Jepsen, Christopher, 2014. "Are Catholic primary schools more effective than public primary schools?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 28-38.
    15. repec:bla:ausecr:v:41:y:2008:i:2:p:141-159 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Haelermans, Carla & De Witte, Kristof & Blank, Jos L.T., 2012. "On the allocation of resources for secondary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 575-586.
    17. Reback, Randall, 2008. "Teaching to the rating: School accountability and the distribution of student achievement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1394-1415, June.
    18. Zoghbi, Ana Carolina & Rocha, Fabiana & Mattos, Enlinson, 2013. "Education production efficiency: Evidence from Brazilian universities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-103.
    19. Eric A. Hanushek & Lori L. Taylor, 1990. "Alternative Assessments of the Performance of Schools: Measurement of State Variations in Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(2), pages 179-201.
    20. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2003. "On The Specification and Estimation of The Production Function for Cognitive Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 3-33, February.
    21. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy J. Hayes & Lori L. Taylor, 2009. "The Relative Efficiency Of Charter Schools," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 67-87, March.
    22. Gronberg, Timothy J. & Jansen, Dennis W. & Taylor, Lori L., 2012. "The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 302-317.
    23. Haelermans, Carla & Ruggiero, John, 2013. "Estimating technical and allocative efficiency in the public sector: A nonparametric analysis of Dutch schools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 174-181.
    24. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Qualifications and Middle School Student Achievement," Working Papers WR-671-IES, RAND Corporation.
    25. repec:kap:iaecre:v:14:y:2008:i:2:p:228-241 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Grosskopf, Shawna & Moutray, Chad, 2001. "Evaluating performance in Chicago public high schools in the wake of decentralization," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, February.
    27. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    28. W. Alexander & Alfred Haug & Mohammad Jaforullah, 2010. "A two-stage double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis of efficiency differences of New Zealand secondary schools," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 99-110, October.
    29. Bradley, Steve & Johnes, Geraint & Millington, Jim, 2001. "The effect of competition on the efficiency of secondary schools in England," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 545-568, December.
    30. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    31. Nghiem, Hong Son & Nguyen, Ha Trong & Khanam, Rasheda & Connelly, Luke B., 2015. "Does school type affect cognitive and non-cognitive development in children? Evidence from Australian primary schools," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 55-65.
    32. Laurens Cherchye & Kristof De Witte & Erwin Ooghe, 2008. "Equity and efficiency in private and public education: a nonparametric comparison," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces0725, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    33. repec:bla:ausecr:v:37:y:2004:i:3:p:271-286 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Kirjavainen, Tanja, 2007. "Efficiency of Finnish Upper Secondary Schools: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis with Panel Data," Discussion Papers 428, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    35. Conroy, Stephen J. & Arguea, Nestor M., 2008. "An estimation of technical efficiency for Florida public elementary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 655-663, December.
    36. Alfred A. Haug & Vincent C. Blackburn, 2013. "Efficiency Aspects of Government Secondary School Finances in New South Wales: Results from a Two-Stage Double-Bootstrap DEA at the School Level," Working Papers 1316, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2013.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sarkar, Dipanwita & Sarkar, Jayanta & Dulleck, Uwe, 2024. "The effects of private and social incentives on students’ test-taking effort," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. An, Duong Hoai, 2022. "Performance of universities in Vietnam," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nghiem, Son & Nguyen, Ha & Connelly, Luke, 2014. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: Evidence from the NAPLAN Data 2009-2011," MPRA Paper 56231, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    3. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William Weber, 2015. "Centralized or decentralized control of school resources? A network model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 139-150, April.
    4. López-Torres, Laura & Nicolini, Rosella & Prior, Diego, 2017. "Does strategic interaction affect demand for school places? A conditional efficiency approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 89-103.
    5. Tommaso Agasisti, 2014. "How does schools’ efficiency look like across Europe? An empirical analysis of Germany, Spain, France, Italy and UK using OECD PISA2012 data," Working papers 9, Società Italiana di Economia Pubblica.
    6. Johnes, Jill, 2015. "Operational Research in education," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(3), pages 683-696.
    7. Brennan, Shae & Haelermans, Carla & Ruggiero, John, 2014. "Nonparametric estimation of education productivity incorporating nondiscretionary inputs with an application to Dutch schools," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(3), pages 809-818.
    8. K. Kounetas & G. Androulakis & M. Kaisari & G. Manousakis, 2023. "Educational reforms and secondary school's efficiency performance in Greece: a bootstrap DEA and multilevel approach," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-29, March.
    9. Yahia, F.B. & Essid, H., 2019. "Determinants of Tunisian Schools’ Efficiency: A DEA-Tobit Approach," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(1), pages 44-56, February.
    10. Ben Yahia, Fatma & Essid, Hédi & Rebai, Sonia, 2018. "Do dropout and environmental factors matter? A directional distance function assessment of tunisian education efficiency," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 120-127.
    11. Alfred A. Haug & Vincent C. Blackburn, 2017. "Government secondary school finances in New South Wales: accounting for students’ prior achievements in a two-stage DEA at the school level," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 69-83, August.
    12. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William L Weber, 2017. "Would weighted-student funding enhance intra-district equity in Texas? A simulation using DEA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 377-389, April.
    13. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori L. Taylor, 2014. "Applied efficiency analysis in education," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 19-26.
    14. José Manuel Cordero & Cristina Polo & Daniel Santín & Gabriela Sicilia, 2016. "Monte-Carlo Comparison of Conditional Nonparametric Methods and Traditional Approaches to Include Exogenous Variables," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 483-497, October.
    15. Miningou, Élisé Wendlassida & Vierstraete, Valérie, 2013. "Households' living situation and the efficient provision of primary education in Burkina Faso," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 910-917.
    16. Agasisti, Tommaso & de Oliveira Ribeiro, Celma & Montemor, Daniel Sanches, 2022. "The efficiency of Brazilian elementary public schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. López-Torres, Laura & Prior, Diego, 2022. "Long-term efficiency of public service provision in a context of budget restrictions. An application to the education sector," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. W. Alexander & Alfred Haug & Mohammad Jaforullah, 2010. "A two-stage double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis of efficiency differences of New Zealand secondary schools," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 99-110, October.
    19. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2020. "Measuring and explaining the production efficiency of Spanish universities using a non-parametric approach and a bootstrapped-truncated regression," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 825-846, February.
    20. Cordero, Jose M. & Polo, Cristina & Santín, Daniel & Simancas, Rosa, 2018. "Efficiency measurement and cross-country differences among schools: A robust conditional nonparametric analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 45-60.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econpa:v:35:y:2016:i:3:p:256-268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.