Education Outcomes, School Governance and Parents' Demand for Accountability : Evidence from Albania

The extent to which teachers and school directors are held to account may play a central role in determining education outcomes, particularly in developing and transition countries where institutional deficiencies can distort incentives. This paper investigates the relationship between an expanded set of school inputs, including proxies for the functionality of "top-down" and "bottom-up" accountability systems, and education outputs in Albanian primary schools. The authors use data generated by an original survey of 180 nationally representative schools. The analysis shows a strong negative correlation between measures of top-down accountability and students' rates of grade repetition and failure in final examinations, and a strong positive correlation between measures of top-down accountability and students' excellence in math. Bottom-up accountability measures are correlated to various education outputs, although they tend lose statistical significance once parent characteristics, school resources and top-down accountability indicators are considered. An in-depth analysis of participatory accountability within the schools focuses on parents' willingness to hold teachers to account. Here, the survey data are combined with data from lab-type experiments conducted with parents and teachers in the schools. In general, the survey data highlight problems of limited parental involvement and lack of information about participatory accountability structures. The experiments indicate that the lack of parental participation in the school accountability system is owing to information constraints and weak institutions that allow parent class representatives to be appointed by teachers rather than elected by parents.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Serra, Danila, Barr, Abigail, Packard, Truman
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2011-04
Subjects:	ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL, ABSENCE OF TEACHERS, ACADEMIC YEAR, ADULTS, APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS, ATTENDANCE RATES, AVERAGE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, AVERAGE LEVEL OF EDUCATION, AVERAGE TEST SCORES, BENEFITS OF EDUCATION, CALL, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOMS, COMMUNITY EDUCATION, COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION, CURRICULA, DECENTRALIZATION, DELIVERY OF EDUCATION, DELIVERY OF EDUCATION SERVICES, DEMAND FOR EDUCATION, DROPOUT RATE, DROPOUT RATES, EDUCATED PARENTS, EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION, EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONS, EDUCATION AUTHORITIES, EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS, EDUCATION DIRECTORATES, EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS, EDUCATION OF TEACHERS, EDUCATION OFFICES, EDUCATION OUTCOMES, EDUCATION SECTOR, EDUCATION SERVICES, EDUCATION TEACHERS, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITIES, EDUCATIONAL INPUTS, EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES, EDUCATIONAL OUTPUTS, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, ELEMENTS, EXAM, EXPENDITURES, FIELD EXPERIMENTS, FINAL EXAM, FINAL EXAMINATIONS, FINAL EXAMS, FINAL GRADES, FORMAL LITERACY, GRADE REPETITION, HEAD TEACHERS, HIGH SCHOOL, HIGHER LEVELS OF EDUCATION, HIGHER REPETITION, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, INSTRUCTION, INTERVENTIONS, INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION, LANGUAGE TEACHERS, LEVEL OF EDUCATION, LEVELS OF EDUCATION, LITERACY, LITERATURE, LIVING STANDARDS, LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITIES, LOCAL SCHOOL MANAGEMENT, LOCAL SCHOOLS, MATH TEACHER, MATH TEST, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, MOTIVATION OF TEACHERS, NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, NUMERACY, OPEN ACCESS, PAPERS, PARENT ASSOCIATIONS, PARENT INVOLVEMENT, PARENT PARTICIPATION, PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, PARENTAL PARTICIPATION, PERFORMANCE IN MATH, PERFORMANCE INDICATORS, PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PROVISION OF TEXTBOOKS, PUBLIC FUNDS, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO, QUALITY OF EDUCATION, QUALITY SCHOOLS, READERS, REGIONAL EDUCATION, REPETITION RATE, REPETITION RATES, RESEARCHERS, RESISTANCE OF TEACHERS, RURAL AREAS, RURAL LOCATIONS, RURAL SCHOOLS, RURAL TEACHERS, SCHOLARSHIPS, SCHOOL ACTIVITIES, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, SCHOOL AUTONOMY, SCHOOL BOARDS, SCHOOL COMMITTEE, SCHOOL COMMITTEES, SCHOOL CONTEXT, SCHOOL COUNCIL, SCHOOL DAY, SCHOOL DIRECTORS, SCHOOL FAILURE, SCHOOL GOVERNANCE, SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT, SCHOOL INSPECTIONS, SCHOOL LEVEL, SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, SCHOOL PRINCIPALS, SCHOOL SUCCESS, SCHOOL TEACHERS, SCHOOLING, SCHOOLS, SECONDARY EDUCATION, SECONDARY SCHOOLS, SELECTION OF TEXTBOOKS, SHOW HOW, SMALLER NUMBER, STANDARDIZED TESTS, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, STUDENT PERFORMANCE, STUDENT REPETITION, STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES, STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO, STUDENTS PER TEACHER, SUPPLY OF EDUCATION SERVICES, TEACHER, TEACHER ABSENTEEISM, TEACHER APPRAISAL, TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS, TEACHER MOTIVATION, TEACHER PERFORMANCE, TEACHER REPRESENTATIVES, TEACHER SALARIES, TEACHER TRAINING, TEACHER UNIONS, TEACHER-PUPIL RATIO, TEACHERS, TEACHERS SALARIES, TEACHING, TEACHING EXPERIENCE, TEACHING MATERIALS, TEST SCORES, TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOKS, TRANSFER OF TEACHERS, UNIVERSITY DEGREE, UNIVERSITY EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, URBAN SCHOOLS, VILLAGE EDUCATION, VILLAGE EDUCATION COMMITTEES, VOCATIONAL SCHOOL,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/04/14114257/education-outcomes-school-governance-parents-demand-accountability-evidence-albania https://hdl.handle.net/10986/19879
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