Publication: An Impact Evaluation of Sri Lanka's Policies to Promote the Academic Performance of Primary School Students through School Improvement and Report Card Programs
Loading...
Date
2011-05
ISSN
Published
2011-05
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Government of Sri Lanka's Education Sector Development Framework and Program (ESDFP) initiated a major development innovation for primary and secondary education for the period 2006-2010. Their strategy was organized around four key themes: improving equitable access to basic and secondary education; improving the quality of basic and secondary education; enhancing the economic efficiency and equity of resource allocation; and strengthening service delivery (Ministry of Education, 2007). Under each theme there were a number of key development initiatives. Among these, the program for school improvement, through which the government sought to introduce school-based management, constituted an important innovation. A smaller intervention, the school report card program, was also introduced to inform schools on their performance. The World Bank supported the ESDFP through a programmatic sector-wide operation, the Education Sector Development Project (ESDP), and a range of analytical activities of key initiatives. The Program for School Improvement (PSI) was a central element of the World Bank's support under the ESDP. The World Bank undertook an impact evaluation of the PSI, as part of its analytical assistance to this program. This report presents the findings of this assessment, and comprises five sections. First, there is a concise description of school-based management. Second, there is a discussion of the PSI and School Report Card Program (SRCP) in Sri Lanka. Third, the analytical framework and results of the impact evaluation are discussed. Fourth, the findings and results of the analysis are discussed. Fifth and finally, a set of recommendations are presented for the future of the PSI and the SRCP.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2011. An Impact Evaluation of Sri Lanka's Policies to Promote the Academic Performance of Primary School Students through School Improvement and Report Card Programs. South Asia human development sector;report
no. 35. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17970 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication An Assessment of the Impacts of Sri Lanka’s Programme for School Improvement and School Report Card Programme on Students’ Academic Progress(Taylor and Francis, 2014-12-03)This paper examines two education programs in Sri Lanka: the Programme for School Improvement (PSI), which decentralizes decision-making power, and the School Report Card Programme (SRCP), which was designed to provide parents and other community members with information on the characteristics and performance of their local schools. Using a difference in differences identification strategy, it finds the following results. First, the PSI program significantly increased Math and English reading test scores among Grade 4 students, but not first language (Sinhalese or Tamil) test scores. However, PSI has had no effect on any test scores of Grade 8 students. In contrast, the SRCP had no significant impacts on any test scores in either grade, and further inquiries revealed that the SRCP was never really implemented. Second, the paper examined the impact of both programs on teacher and school principal variables. Overall, few effects were found, and in some cases effects were found that one would associate with reduced school quality. On a more positive note, the PSI program does appear to have led schools to form School Development Committees (SDCs), as the program stipulates, to establish a list of school priorities and to implement projects funded through local fundraising.Publication The Impact of Sri Lanka’s School-Based Management Program on Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and Student Learning(Taylor and Francis, 2021-12)Education is widely accepted as a key determinant of economic and social development. Developing countries have made substantial progress in increasing school enrollment rates in the last 50 years, but in many countries’ students are not learning the skills that the curriculum sets as the goals of their education. One policy that has been advocated by experts and international development agencies is school-based management. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a school-based management policy recently introduced in Sri Lanka, the Program for School Improvement (PSI). The PSI established new management structures and provided training and support services in order to: (a) devolve decisions for a range of activities to the school level; (b) increase the participation of parents and the local community in the work of the school; and (c) focus schools’ efforts on student learning. To evaluate the effectiveness of the PSI on measures of school performance, a randomized controlled trial was conducted. Overall, the data show some evidence of changes in the behavior of both principals and teachers in the PSI schools, but most of the observed behaviors did not change. Turning to student learning as measured by test scores, there are also no statistically significant effects, although the (imprecisely) estimated impact on math scores (0.21 standard deviations) is moderately large.Publication From Schooling Access to Learning Outcomes, An Unfinished Agenda : An Evaluation of World Bank Support to Primary Education(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The Education for All (EFA) movement, launched in 1990, has resulted in an extraordinary mobilization of World Bank and country resources in support of basic education over the past 15 years. World Bank EFA financing, mostly focused on primary education, has become increasingly progressive, targeting the most disadvantaged countries and often the disadvantaged within countries. Over the years of Bank support for EFA and its world conferences in 1990 and 2000, the Bank's policy objectives for increased support to primary education have been simple and remarkably stable: universal primary school completion, equality of access for girls and other disadvantaged groups, and improved student learning outcomes. This Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) evaluation assesses the extent to which these objectives have been met in countries supported by the Bank. and it provide lessons for countries in their development strategies and for the Bank in its support to those strategies.Publication Improving Student Enrollment and Teacher Absenteeism Outcomes through Social Accountability Interventions in Nalgonda and Adilabad Districts, Andhra Pradesh, India(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-11)Although Andhra Pradesh (AP) has high economic growth, the state's public education system, which most poor children attend, faces several structural issues that hinder its quality. Although the public education system offers a structured space for parent and community input into management of schools, these spaces are not systematically used. AP achieved 10.37 percent economic growth for 2007-08 against the national average of 8.37 percent and has a poverty headcount ratio of 16 percent, compared with 23 percent for India as a whole. Despite such growth, AP's public education system, which serves the children of most poor households, faces several structural issues that impair its quality. The quality of education itself is suboptimal, teacher absenteeism rates are high, and teachers lack accountability to parents and the community. As a result, parents who wish to give their children quality education opt for expensive private schools. The AP Community Participation Act also empowered village level school committees to conduct micro-planning exercises and to develop education plans for schools. These school committees consist of teachers and the parents of the children enrolled in the school. Committee meetings are convened by the school's headmaster but presided over by an elected parent. After one year of implementation, this accountability intervention catalyzed the community and service providers to take an active role in public education. It brought about a series of impacts and outcomes, starting at the micro level with behavior changes on the part of students, parents, and the community, as well as school administrators and teachers. These behavior changes iterated over time, triggered changes at the institutional level in the school committees and government functionaries at higher levels.Publication The Impact of School Quality, Socio-Economic Factors and Child Health on Students’ Academic Performance : Evidence from Sri Lankan Primary Schools(Taylor and Francis, 2011-06-24)One of the eight Millennium Development Goals is that all children in developing countries should complete primary education. Much progress has been made toward this goal, but completing primary school does not ensure that students attain basic literacy and numeracy skills. Indeed, there is ample evidence that many children in developing countries are not learning these basic skills. This raises the question: What can schools and communities do to increase the learning that takes place in schools? Sri Lanka exemplifies these issues. It has achieved universal primary completion, but many Sri Lankan primary school students perform poorly on academic tests. This paper uses unusually rich data from Sri Lanka to investigate the determinants of academic performance, as measured by achievement tests, of Grade 4 students. At the child and household level, educated parents, better nutrition, high daily attendance, enrollment in private tutoring classes, exercise books, electric lighting, and children’s books at home all appear to increase learning, while hearing problems have a strong negative effect. Among school variables, principals’ and teachers’ years of experience, collaborating with other schools in a ‘school family,’ and meetings between parents and teachers all appear to have positive impacts on students’ scores. Estimates that exclude some of the variables available in the unusually rich data yield different results, which suggests that results based on less complete data are likely to suffer from omitted variable bias. A final section provides recommendations for education policies in Sri Lanka.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication IFC Annual Report 2012 : Innovation, Influence, Demonstration, Volume 2. Results(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)This annual report of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) summarizes the innovation and leadership roles in the private sector during fiscal year 2012. The IFC invested a record $20.4 billion in 103 developing countries, reflecting a doubling of annual commitments over the last five years. Those investments included nearly $5 billion mobilized from other investors, and an investment for Sub-Saharan Africa totaling $2.7 billion, nearly twice as much as five years ago. The advisory services program expenditures grew to $197 million, up more than 50 percent over the last five years. Advisory services also helped 33 client governments introduce 56 investment-climate reforms that will improve access to basic services for more than 16 million people. IFC investment clients helped support 2.5 million jobs in 2011 and made 23 million loans totaling more than $200 billion to micro, small, and medium enterprises. Net income before grants to the International Development Association (IDA) totaled $1.66 billion. The IFC has invested more than $23 billion in IDA countries, nearly $6 billion of it in fiscal year 2012 alone.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.