Publication: School Autonomy and Accountability
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2011-04-27
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2015-02-26
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The objective of this paper is to present an assessment scale for benchmarking school autonomy and accountability. This scale is one of the tools being developed under system assessment and benchmarking for education results (SABER) initiative created by the World Bank as part of its education strategy. The purpose of this scale is to reinforce the monitoring and evaluation of education system performance to foster a better environment for teaching and learning. The goal of this effort is to align the personal and managerial incentives at the school level to produce increased student learning. The application of the assessment scale can be an important tool for education system reform if it is used as an instrument for planning and monitoring the enabling conditions for improving system performance. As such, it starts with the assumption that increased school autonomy and improved accountability are necessary conditions for improved learning because they align teacher and parent incentives. This assertion is consistent with the SABER framework for fostering better school performance that includes three important factors: (a) the periodic measurement of learning outcomes and of teacher performance as the basis for school accountability, (b) the use of school and student performance indicators that can be compared across localities and across time, and (c) the use of rewards and sanctions and policy interventions for aligning personal and school incentives with improved student performance.
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“Arcia, Gustavo; Macdonald, Kevin; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Porta, Emilio. 2011. School Autonomy and Accountability. SABER;. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21546 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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