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School quality, achievement bias, and dropout behaviour in Egypt
98
Economics o/" Education Review
roads, safe drinking water, and irrigation increases the returns to education and enhances overall educational attainment. So, infrastructure promotes the education ladder. What is even quite unique is the quantitative documentation of the differential impact of such benefits on gender. The study findings support that investment in safe drinking water tends to promote girls' schooling whereas investment in irrigation and high-yielding crop varieties favors boys' enrollment. The study, however, needed a background analysis on Morocco to enable the reader to better evaluate the performance of the education sector in the context of the country's socioeconomic development. In particular, some elaboration on the cultural front would provide better insight to the gender bias. Also, reference to the human development index (and its gender adjusted figure) should have been made. Finally, it should have been emphasized that policy implications of the infrastructure--education links should support greater public-private partnership to increase the efficiency of infrastructure provision and consequently to improve educational outcomes.
education more effective. As the study pointed out, specific components of school quality were not measured, thus undermining the extent of policy intervention. It is believed that the case of Egypt may not have been sufficiently explored to determine the interaction of "other" factors that could also affect dropout behavior. The reference to findings in contradiction with the Malaysian analysis is a case in point. It should also be stated that despite its richness, the data examined is not current. Over the past fifteen years, with higher population pressure and a changing economic environment new dimensions could possibly impact this evaluation quite differently. After all school effectiveness is influenced by the institutional, cultural, political, and economic context surrounding it. Such problems should not, however, take away from the study's major accomplishment of quantitatively integrating school quality in the evaluation of primary education. D. HOSNI
University of Central Florida
D. HOSN1
Universi~ of Central Florida
School Quality, Achievement Bias, and Dropout Behaviour in Egypt. ERIC HANUSHEK and VICTOR LAVY. Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 107. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1994. pp. xi + 36. Price: U.S.$6.95. THE STUDY REPRESENTS the first attempt at measuring school quality which is considered to be an important determinant of dropout behavior. It offers an outcome approach to the assessment of school quality. The authors maintain that studies which ignore that dimension overstate the rate of return to schooling yielding sub-optimal policies. The data used come from a World Bank longitudinal survey of primary students in Egypt for the 1978/79 and 1979/80 academic years designed to examine skill retention among dropouts through a series of achievement and ability tests. Following a value-added model of achievement, school quality is defined as "the gain in achievement that a student can expect from attending a given school for an additional year". A large random sample of student enrollees and dropouts were drawn from 30 urban and 30 rural primary schools. The estimation methodology disaggregates the individual (ability, achievement level), the family (parents' education, income and wealth as well as family size) and the school effects. The estimates indicate significant achievement growth differentials reflecting quality variations among schools. Empirical findings support the hypothesis that better schools reduce the probability of dropping out. Upgrading school quality could, therefore, significantly reduce the annual dropout rate by as much as two-thirds or more. It was also observed that it would translate into improved earning opportunities. While there was an impressive and sophisticated effort of data manipulation, the reader may find the statistical analysis not that easy to follow. Several data limitations are acknowledged by the authors who laboriously resort to additional testing of more factors to counter the partial effects of some variables. Such exercise may reflect the need to revisit the conceptual and methodological framework. Individuals involved in primary education may be disappointed if they are seeking a direct solution to make primary
A Lesson in School Reform From Great Britain. JOHN E. CHUBB and TERRY M. MOE. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992. pp. vi + 50. Price: U.S.$6.95 (paper). IN POLITICS MARKETS and America's Schools, John Chubb and Terry Moe (1990) (hereafter C&M), reported their findings from an analysis of U.S. High Schools from 1980 through 1984. Their search was for key variables that promoted school effectiveness. Three major causes of student achievement in schools emerged from their analysis: student ability, school organization, and family background. Of these variables the most operational for policy purposes is, of course, school organization. This variable, indeed, was found to be approximately as important an influence as initial ability and family background. But what were the key characteristics of effectiveness in organization? C&M's main conclusions were as follows: "Autonomy has the strongest influence on the overall quality of school organization of any factor that we examined. Bureaucracy is unambiguously bad for school organization." (p. 183). From this analysis C&M proceeded to vigorous advocacy of school choice. Although several attempts in the direction of choice have been made since the publication of C & M ' s book, they are evidently disappointed with progress to date because, in their opinion, after experiments have been launched they eventually get buried in bureaucracy. In this book C&M take more hope from recent events in Britain. Their analysis of the Thatcher reforms will be interesting and useful to readers of all persuasions. The Education Reform Act of 1982 is described as a "stunning achievement". It was able to succeed because, C&M argue, the parliamentary system in Britain allows effective centralized decisions to be made. Under the British Act choice was promoted in three basic ways: open enrolment, opting out, and the creation of city technology colleges. The first of these, open enrolment, has met with only limited success because it is a top-down system. The city technology colleges were innovative in part because they have been financed partly by private donations from business. C&M describe it as an antisystem reform because it loosens the iron grip of the local education authorities (LEAs) on the supply of schools, allowing new schools to emerge without their consent. The new schools, however, have not been the product of genuine taxpayer-citizen demand. Instead they have been treated as a top-down project of creation of new types of schools that fill a gap in the existing system.
Economics o/" Education Review
roads, safe drinking water, and irrigation increases the returns to education and enhances overall educational attainment. So, infrastructure promotes the education ladder. What is even quite unique is the quantitative documentation of the differential impact of such benefits on gender. The study findings support that investment in safe drinking water tends to promote girls' schooling whereas investment in irrigation and high-yielding crop varieties favors boys' enrollment. The study, however, needed a background analysis on Morocco to enable the reader to better evaluate the performance of the education sector in the context of the country's socioeconomic development. In particular, some elaboration on the cultural front would provide better insight to the gender bias. Also, reference to the human development index (and its gender adjusted figure) should have been made. Finally, it should have been emphasized that policy implications of the infrastructure--education links should support greater public-private partnership to increase the efficiency of infrastructure provision and consequently to improve educational outcomes.
education more effective. As the study pointed out, specific components of school quality were not measured, thus undermining the extent of policy intervention. It is believed that the case of Egypt may not have been sufficiently explored to determine the interaction of "other" factors that could also affect dropout behavior. The reference to findings in contradiction with the Malaysian analysis is a case in point. It should also be stated that despite its richness, the data examined is not current. Over the past fifteen years, with higher population pressure and a changing economic environment new dimensions could possibly impact this evaluation quite differently. After all school effectiveness is influenced by the institutional, cultural, political, and economic context surrounding it. Such problems should not, however, take away from the study's major accomplishment of quantitatively integrating school quality in the evaluation of primary education. D. HOSNI
University of Central Florida
D. HOSN1
Universi~ of Central Florida
School Quality, Achievement Bias, and Dropout Behaviour in Egypt. ERIC HANUSHEK and VICTOR LAVY. Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 107. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1994. pp. xi + 36. Price: U.S.$6.95. THE STUDY REPRESENTS the first attempt at measuring school quality which is considered to be an important determinant of dropout behavior. It offers an outcome approach to the assessment of school quality. The authors maintain that studies which ignore that dimension overstate the rate of return to schooling yielding sub-optimal policies. The data used come from a World Bank longitudinal survey of primary students in Egypt for the 1978/79 and 1979/80 academic years designed to examine skill retention among dropouts through a series of achievement and ability tests. Following a value-added model of achievement, school quality is defined as "the gain in achievement that a student can expect from attending a given school for an additional year". A large random sample of student enrollees and dropouts were drawn from 30 urban and 30 rural primary schools. The estimation methodology disaggregates the individual (ability, achievement level), the family (parents' education, income and wealth as well as family size) and the school effects. The estimates indicate significant achievement growth differentials reflecting quality variations among schools. Empirical findings support the hypothesis that better schools reduce the probability of dropping out. Upgrading school quality could, therefore, significantly reduce the annual dropout rate by as much as two-thirds or more. It was also observed that it would translate into improved earning opportunities. While there was an impressive and sophisticated effort of data manipulation, the reader may find the statistical analysis not that easy to follow. Several data limitations are acknowledged by the authors who laboriously resort to additional testing of more factors to counter the partial effects of some variables. Such exercise may reflect the need to revisit the conceptual and methodological framework. Individuals involved in primary education may be disappointed if they are seeking a direct solution to make primary
A Lesson in School Reform From Great Britain. JOHN E. CHUBB and TERRY M. MOE. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992. pp. vi + 50. Price: U.S.$6.95 (paper). IN POLITICS MARKETS and America's Schools, John Chubb and Terry Moe (1990) (hereafter C&M), reported their findings from an analysis of U.S. High Schools from 1980 through 1984. Their search was for key variables that promoted school effectiveness. Three major causes of student achievement in schools emerged from their analysis: student ability, school organization, and family background. Of these variables the most operational for policy purposes is, of course, school organization. This variable, indeed, was found to be approximately as important an influence as initial ability and family background. But what were the key characteristics of effectiveness in organization? C&M's main conclusions were as follows: "Autonomy has the strongest influence on the overall quality of school organization of any factor that we examined. Bureaucracy is unambiguously bad for school organization." (p. 183). From this analysis C&M proceeded to vigorous advocacy of school choice. Although several attempts in the direction of choice have been made since the publication of C & M ' s book, they are evidently disappointed with progress to date because, in their opinion, after experiments have been launched they eventually get buried in bureaucracy. In this book C&M take more hope from recent events in Britain. Their analysis of the Thatcher reforms will be interesting and useful to readers of all persuasions. The Education Reform Act of 1982 is described as a "stunning achievement". It was able to succeed because, C&M argue, the parliamentary system in Britain allows effective centralized decisions to be made. Under the British Act choice was promoted in three basic ways: open enrolment, opting out, and the creation of city technology colleges. The first of these, open enrolment, has met with only limited success because it is a top-down system. The city technology colleges were innovative in part because they have been financed partly by private donations from business. C&M describe it as an antisystem reform because it loosens the iron grip of the local education authorities (LEAs) on the supply of schools, allowing new schools to emerge without their consent. The new schools, however, have not been the product of genuine taxpayer-citizen demand. Instead they have been treated as a top-down project of creation of new types of schools that fill a gap in the existing system.