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An assessment of pupil and school performance in public primary education in Uruguay

Author

Listed:
  • Paola Azar

    (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía)

  • Gabriela Sicilia

    (Universidad de la Laguna (España). Departamento de Economía, Contabilidad y Finanzas.)

Abstract

This paper discusses the potential improvements in pupil’s academic results at public primary schools in Uruguay. Using student level data from the first national assessment of educational achievements, we decompose education attainments into pupil’s own effort and school value added following a multilevel metafrontier approach originally introduced by Silva-Portela and Thannassoulis (2002). We find that on average, pupils miss 19.2% of their potential achievement, mainly driven by their own under-performance. The extent of output students cannot obtain because of school effects is mainly explained by suboptimal resource availability at the school level rather than schools’ own managerial ability. The shortfall in the school’s contribution to efficiency affects those students in the least advantaged socioeconomic contexts and those with lower test scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Azar & Gabriela Sicilia, 2021. "An assessment of pupil and school performance in public primary education in Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-22, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-22-21
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    File URL: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/30217
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    educational performance; multilevel metafrontier approach; primary education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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