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School-level policies and the efficiency and equity trade-off in education

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  • Ferraro, Simona
  • Põder, Kaire

Abstract

This paper identifies the relationship between pupils’ Family Background, their mathematics scores, and school-level policies, using the 2012 Programme of International Student Assessment for Italy and multilevel modelling. School-level policies have played a leading role in recent school reforms in many countries, but there is no straightforward empirical evidence for how they affect pupils’ outcomes and the equality of educational outcomes. Our findings show that that only some school policies intensify the Family Background Effect – (educational equity) and affect student outcomes (educational efficiency) simultaneously. We find that competitive schools are able to screen students by selecting higher socio-economic status parents, which mainly harms equity without having much effect on efficiency. There are some policies which allow some trade-off between aforementioned objectives, mainly policies related to management schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferraro, Simona & Põder, Kaire, 2018. "School-level policies and the efficiency and equity trade-off in education," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 1022-1037.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:40:y:2018:i:5:p:1022-1037
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2017.11.001
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    Cited by:

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    3. Agasisti, Tommaso & Longobardi, Sergio & Prete, Vincenzo & Russo, Felice, 2021. "The relevance of educational poverty in Europe: Determinants and remedies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 692-709.
    4. Vicente, Iván & Pastor, José M. & Soler, Ángel, 2021. "Improving educational resilience in the OECD countries: Two convergent paths," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 1149-1166.
    5. Lagravinese, Raffaele & Liberati, Paolo & Resce, Giuliano, 2020. "The impact of economic, social and cultural conditions on educational attainments," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 112-132.
    6. Bhatnagar, Abhishek & Bolia, Nomesh B., 2019. "Improved governance of Indian school system through school consolidation," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1160-1178.
    7. Granato, Silvia, 2023. "Early Influences and the choice of college major: Can policies reduce the gender gap in scientific curricula (STEM)?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 494-521.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    School-level policies; Equity; Efficiency PISA2012; Multilevel modelling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • C19 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Other

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