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School Quality, Child Wellbeing and Parents Satisfaction

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  • Steve Gibbons
  • Olmo Silva

Abstract

Researchers in economics of education usually assume that parents choose schools for their high academic performance, with some support from revealed preference evidence based on local house prices. However, anecdotal evidence and common sense suggest that school quality is not one-dimensional and that parents and children are concerned about other school factors related to pupil wellbeing. In this paper we consider whether parental notions of school quality are based on academic standards, and whether these notions are aligned with the wellbeing of the children. To do so, we use direct information on stated perceptions in the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England (LSYPE) matched to UK administrative records on pupil achievements. Our results suggest that test score based measures of school quality tend to dominate parents' perceptions of educational excellence. However, school quality along this dimension is not strongly associated with pupil happiness and enjoyment of the learning environment.

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Paper provided by Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE in its series CEE Discussion Papers with number 0103.

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Date of creation: Jan 2009
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Handle: RePEc:cep:ceedps:0103
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://cee.lse.ac.uk/publications.htm

Keywords: School Quality; Wellbeing; Happiness and Satisfaction; Subjective Measures;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
  • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
  • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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Cited by:

  1. Maestri, Virginia, 2009. "Can ethnic diversity have a positive effect on school achievement?," MPRA Paper 31547, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2011.
  2. Gibbons, Stephen & Machin, Stephen & Silva, Olmo, 2013. "Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 15-28.
  3. Figlio, David N. & Karbownik, Krzysztof & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2015. "Education Research and Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 9474, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Borooah, V. & Mangan, J., 2011. "Floreat Scuola: An International Analysis of Parental Satisfaction with Schools," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 11(3).
  5. Green, Colin P. & Navarro-Paniagua, María & Ximénez-de-Embún, Domingo P. & Mancebón, María-Jesús, 2014. "School choice and student wellbeing," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 139-150.
  6. Wang, Liang Choon, 2015. "All work and no play? The effects of ability sorting on students’ non-school inputs, time use, and grade anxiety," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 29-41.
  7. Abou, Pokou Edouard, 2015. "Incidence du travail domestique, des caractéristiques de l’école et du ménage sur les résultats scolaires des filles en Côte d’Ivoire
    [Incidence of domestic work, school and household characteristi    ," MPRA Paper 43976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  8. Machin, Stephen, 2011. "Houses and schools: Valuation of school quality through the housing market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 723-729.
  9. Schwartz, Amy Ellen & Stiefel, Leanna & Wiswall, Matthew, 2016. "Are all schools created equal? Learning environments in small and large public high schools in New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 272-290.
  10. repec:aia:aiaswp:wp108 is not listed on IDEAS
  11. Wu, Wenjie, 2015. "Rail access and subjective well-being: Evidence from quality of life surveys," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 456-470.

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