IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tsy/journl/journl_tsy_er_2008_3_3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How much of the variation in literacy and numeracy can be explained by school performance?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Leigh

    (Treasury, Government of Australia)

  • Hector Thompson

    (Treasury, Government of Australia)

Abstract

Family background is known to have a substantial impact on students' literacy and numeracy results. This raises questions about whether any of the remaining differences in results are due to school performance — or whether they are merely due to random noise. This article reviews research from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, based on student-level analysis. It then presents new evidence based on publicly reported school-level data from Western Australia. Combining test results with data on schools’ socioeconomic characteristics, this study estimates the degree to which some schools outperform those with similar characteristics. On a 'like schools' basis, school differences are shown to be persistent across subjects, grades and years.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Leigh & Hector Thompson, 2008. "How much of the variation in literacy and numeracy can be explained by school performance?," Economic Roundup, The Treasury, Australian Government, issue 3, pages 63-78, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:tsy:journl:journl_tsy_er_2008_3_3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1421/PDF/05_Variation_Literacy_Numeracy_explained_by_School_Performance.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric A. Hanushek & Margaret E. Raymond, 2005. "Does school accountability lead to improved student performance?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 297-327.
    2. Eric A. Hanushek & Margaret E. Raymond, 2006. "School accountability and student performance," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Mar, pages 51-61.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Atsuyoshi MOROZUMI & Ryuichi TANAKA, 2023. "School Accountability and Student Achievement: Neighboring schools matter," Discussion papers 23004, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Richardson, J.T., 2015. "Accountability incentives and academic achievement: Distributional impacts of accountability when standards are set low," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-16.
    3. Seth Gershenson, 2016. "Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence From Teacher Absences," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 615-638, June.
    4. Eric A. Hanushek & Jacob D. Light & Paul E. Peterson & Laura M. Talpey & Ludger Woessmann, 2022. "Long-run Trends in the U.S. SES-Achievement Gap," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 17(4), pages 608-640, Fall.
    5. Pierre Koning & Karen Wiel, 2012. "School Responsiveness to Quality Rankings: An Empirical Analysis of Secondary Education in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 339-355, December.
    6. Yusuke Jinnai, 2016. "The Effects of a Teacher Performance-Pay Program on Student Achievement: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(2), pages 993-999.
    7. Jia, Ning, 2021. "Do stricter high school math requirements raise college STEM attainment?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Edgar Ortiz & Miriam Sosa & Héctor Díaz, 2015. "Educational Levels and the Impact of ICT on Economic Growth: Evidence of a Cointegrated Panel," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 5(9), pages 15-30, September.
    9. Bouhlila, Donia Smaali, 2015. "The Heyneman–Loxley effect revisited in the Middle East and North Africa: Analysis using TIMSS 2007 database," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 85-95.
    10. repec:ces:ifodic:v:2:y:2004:i:4:p:14567717 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Cecilia E. Rouse & Jane Hannaway & Dan Goldhaber & David Figlio, 2007. "Feeling the Florida Heat? How Low-Performing Schools Respond to Voucher and Accountability Pressure," Working Papers 1033, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    12. 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.
    13. Burgess, Simon & Wilson, Deborah & Worth, Jack, 2013. "A natural experiment in school accountability: The impact of school performance information on pupil progress," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 57-67.
    14. Lee Crawfurd, 2017. "School Management and Public–Private Partnerships in Uganda," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 26(5), pages 539-560.
    15. Feng, Li & Figlio, David & Sass, Tim, 2018. "School accountability and teacher mobility," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-17.
    16. Leschnig, Lisa & Schwerdt, Guido & Zigova, Katarina, 2022. "Central exams and adult skills: Evidence from PIAAC," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    17. Tom Ahn, 2017. "Strategic Matching of Teachers and Schools with (and without) Accountability Pressure," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 12(4), pages 516-535, Fall.
    18. Hanushek, Eric A. & Peterson, Paul E. & Talpey, Laura M. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2019. "The Unwavering SES Achievement Gap: Trends in U.S. Student Performance," Working Paper Series rwp19-012, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    19. Domenico Consoli & Selena Aureli, 2018. "Un framework integrato per la misura dell?innovazione del Piano Nazionale Scuola Digitale (PNSD)," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 139-164.
    20. Di, Wenhua & Murdoch, James C., 2013. "The impact of the low income housing tax credit program on local schools," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 308-320.
    21. Hanushek, Eric A., 2006. "Alternative school policies and the benefits of general cognitive skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 447-462, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    demographics; education; PISA; Programme for International Student Assessment; socioeconomic conditions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    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:tsy:journl:journl_tsy_er_2008_3_3. 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: The Treasury (Commonwealth of Australia) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/trgovau.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.