In close coordination with the project "Evaluation of the Relationship between National Policies Affecting School Autonomy and Parental Choice", this project analyzes the effects of school autonomy, choice and accountability systems on equity achieved in the school system.
The underlying database is the international PISA-2003 dataset. Equality of opportunity is quantified by the extent to which students’ performance depends on their socio-economic backgrounds.
Much of the criticism of recent school reforms that introduce accountability, autonomy, and choice emphasizes their potentially negative consequences for equity. Yet, the main empirical result of this project is that rather than harming disadvantaged students, ac-countability, autonomy, and choice appear to be beneficial for all students irrespective of their socio-economic background (SES). The additional choice created by public funding for private schools in particular is associated with a strong reduction in the de-pendence of student achievement on SES. External exit exams have a strong positive effect for all students that is slightly smaller for low-SES students. The positive effect of regularly using subjective teacher ratings to assess students is substantially larger for low-SES students. The effect of many other accountability devices does not differ significantly by student SES. School autonomy in determining course content is associated with higher equality of opportunity, while equality of opportunity is lower in countries where more schools have autonomy in hiring teachers. Autonomy in formulating the budget and in establishing starting salaries is not associated with the equity of student outcomes. Inequality of opportunity is substantially higher in school systems that track students at early ages.
G. Schütz, M.R. West, L. Wößmann (2007). School Accountability, Autonomy, Choice, and the Equity of Student Achievement: International Evidence from PISA 2003. OECD Education Working Paper Nr. 14.
RSS