Publication: Inside the House of Learning : The Relative Performance of Public and Private Schools in Orissa
Abstract
Empirical evidence shows that the quality of learning in public schools is very low in India. There is also a robust belief that private schools offer better-quality learning at a lower cost and are a cost-effective alternative to public schools. Most of the evidence on which this latter claim is based does not correct for selection bias--students who go to private schools may differ systematically from students who go to public schools on observable and unobservable characteristics. In this context, it is entirely plausible that public schools may be no worse or even better than private schools although the latter may still be more cost-effective. In this paper, we use a strategy suggested by Altonji, Elder, and Taber to estimate selection bias in the positive private school effect on test scores. We use test scores data on Grade Four students attending public and private schools in the eastern state of Orissa in India. Our findings suggest that there is a true private school effect as only 12-13% of the adjusted test score difference is due to selection on unobserved factors.
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Publication Community Participation in Public Schools : Impact of Information Campaigns in Three Indian States(2009)This study evaluates the impact of a community-based information campaign on school performance from a cluster randomized control trial in 610 villages. The campaign consisted of eight or nine public meetings in each of 340 treatment villages across three Indian states to disseminate information to the community about its state-mandated roles and responsibilities in school management. No intervention took place in control villages. At baseline there are no significant differences in school outcomes. This paper reports on the first follow up survey that took place two to four months after the intervention. We find that providing information through a structured campaign to communities had a positive impact in all three states. However, there are differences across states in where the impact occurs. The most notable impacts occurred on teacher effort, while impacts on learning were more modest. Some improvements also occurred in the delivery of benefits entitled to students (stipend, uniform, and mid-day meal) and in process variables such as community participation in each of the three states. Future research needs to examine whether there is a systematic increase in learning when the impact is measured over a longer time period and whether a campaign sustained over longer duration generates greater impact on school outcomes.Publication Public Participation, Teacher Accountability, and School Outcomes : Findings from Baseline Surveys in Three Indian States(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-11)This paper presents findings from baseline surveys on student learning achievement, teacher effort and community participation in three Indian states, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Results indicate low teacher attendance and poor student learning. Parents and school committees are neither aware of their oversight roles nor participating in school management. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in outcomes across states. Karnataka has better student and teacher outcomes as well as higher levels of community awareness and participation than the other two states. The authors find substantial variation in teacher effort within schools, but most observable teacher characteristics are not associated with teacher effort. One reason for low teacher effort may be lack of accountability. Regression analysis suggests low rates of teacher attendance are only part of the problem of low student achievement. The gains in test scores associated with higher rates of attendance and engagement in teaching are small in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, suggesting teachers themselves may not be effective. Ineffective teaching may result from lack of accountability as well as poor professional development of teachers. Further research is needed to examine not only issues of accountability but also professional development of teachers.Publication Community Participation in Public Schools : The Impact of Information Campaigns in Three Indian States(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-11)This study evaluates the impact of a community-based information campaign on school performance from a cluster randomized control trial. The campaign consisted of eight to nine public meetings in each of 340 treatment villages across three Indian states to disseminate information to the community about its state mandated roles and responsibilities in school management. The findings from the first follow-up 2-4 months after the campaign show that providing information through a structured campaign to communities had a positive impact in all three states. In two states there was a significant and positive impact on reading (14-27 percent) in one of the three grades tested; in the third state there was a significant impact on writing in one grade (15 percent) and on mathematics in the other grade tested (27 percent). The intervention is associated with improvement in teacher effort in two states. Some improvements occurred in the delivery of certain benefits entitled to students (stipend, uniform, and mid day meal) and in process variables such as community participation in each of the three states. Follow-up research needs to examine whether there is a systematic increase in learning when the impact is measured over a longer time period and whether a campaign sustained over a longer time is able to generate greater impact on school outcomes.Publication How Do Government and Private Schools Differ? Findings from Two Large Indian States(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-12)This paper uses survey data from representative samples of government and private schools in two states of India, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, to explore systematic differences between the two school types. The authors find that private school students have higher test scores than government school students. However, in both private and government schools the overall quality is low and learning gains from one grade to the next are small. There is large variation in the quality of both school types; and observed school and teacher characteristics are weakly correlated with learning outcomes. There is considerable sorting among students, and those from higher socio-economic strata select into private schools. Private schools have lower pupil-teacher ratios and seven to eight times' lower teacher salaries but do not differ systematically in infrastructure and teacher effort from government schools. Most of the variation in teacher effort is within schools and is weakly correlated with observed teacher characteristics such as education, training, and experience. After controlling for observed student and school characteristics, the private school advantage over government schools in test scores varies by state, school type and grade. Private unrecognized schools do better than private recognized schools. Given the large salary differential, private schools would clearly be more cost effective even in the case of no absolute difference in test scores.Publication A Note on Schooling and Wage Inequality in the Public and Private Sector(2009)The few studies that have examined the wage impact of education across the earning distribution have focused on high-income countries and show education to be more profitable at the top of the distribution. The implication is that education may increase inequality. Extending the analysis to 16 East Asian and Latin American countries, in Latin America we observe a pattern similar to that of Europe/North America (increasing wage effects), while in East Asia the wage effects are predominantly decreasing by earnings quantile. However, once the analysis is performed separately for the public and the private sector, it is revealed that the strongly decreasing impact of schooling on earnings in the public sectors of East Asian countries is responsible for the overall observed decreasing pattern, while the impact of schooling on earnings in the private sectors of these countries is non-decreasing.
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