SCHOOLS
Most children now live in villages with multiple schools. This means that a schools’ enrollment will depend not only on what the school has to offer, but also what other schools in the same village are offering. The work on schools examines this complex landscape, highlighting the implications for public-private differences, the value of private schools and how the entry and exit of private schools provides fundamental and new insights on how schools—public and private—make the investments that determine our children’s futures.
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Private Schooling, Learning, and Civic Values
Image: U.S. Agency for International Development
We present the first estimates of School Value-Added from a low-income country—that is, a measure of how much a (randomly selected) child would learn by attending a particular school. We demonstrate the feasibility and viability of these measurements in the LEAPS data and examine the variation in value-added across schools.
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Can we estimate valid measures of school value-added in the the LEAPS data?
If so, how much variation in school quality is there in the public and private sectors and what are the implications of this variation for policy?
How does school value-added determine longer-term outcomes like exit and market-share in the public and private sectors?
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We can feasibly estimate forecast-unbiased school value-added measures in the LEAPS data. There is no trade-off in these data between value-added in test scores and civic values.
There is tremendous variation in school value-added within the public and private sector. There are better and worse-performing public and private schools in every village.
Although private schools produce higher value-added on average, policies that reallocate children from public to private schools lead to a range of possible effects, from negative to highly positive.
Private schools with higher value-added charge higher fees, are less likely to exit the market and garner greater market share over 8 years.
Household Demand and Private Schools
Image: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Private schools are growing in popularity in many low- and middle-income countries around the world, and governments are responding with a large range of policies. To design and implement efficient policy, the first step is understanding household demand for private schools.
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What are the main determinants of school choice in this setting?
Do families value having the choice of a private school?
Is the price of tuition a large barrier to entry for families who want to send their children to a private school?
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Distance between home and school is a key input in the school choice decision.
Families value having the choice of a private school, reaching 2% to 7% of annual per capita expenditure for those choosing private schools.
Families are not very sensitive to the price of private schools.
The impact of vouchers is smaller than speculated.
A Model for Horizontal Competition
Image: Evidence for Policy Design
A growing literature suggests that the match between a student’s instructional needs and a school’s instructional level is a key determinant of learning. We study the magnitude of these effects and how they respond to changes in the market.
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Is the match between a school and a student an important determinant of learning?
Do competitive forces lead private schools to choose instructional levels that tend to favor wealthier students at the expense of poorer students, reducing overall learning?
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Match is an important determinant of learning.
Moving a student from the worst to best possible match school would increase their test scores by 0.37 SD (equivalent to approximately 1 additional year of schooling).
On average, private schools choose match-specific qualities that favor wealthier students because these students are substantially more responsive to quality.
Increased competition due to private school entry exacerbates the incentive to cater to wealthier students.
Private School Entry and Public Education
Image: Caroline Suzman, World Bank
While the growing phenomenon of private schooling in low-income countries is increasingly well studied, little is know about the impact of private school expansion on public education. This study explores the impact of private school entry on public school enrollment, sorting, and school value-added.
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How does private school entry affect the demand for and supply of public education?
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Private school expansion does not have negative effects on public schools’ performance, despite evidence of sorting.
Following a private school’s entry, grade 1 and 2 enrollment in public schools drop by 5-10 percent.
Students from wealthier backgrounds and those who perform better on standardized tests are more likely to exit public schools and enroll in private schools.
In the short term, private school entry has no effects on public school value added.