How Effective Are Private Schools in Latin America?

Abstract

Using multilevel modeling and data from 10 Latin American countries, this paper provides new evidence on the relative effectiveness of public and private schools. There are substantial differences in the achievement of private and public schools, usually around one-half a standard deviation. A small portion of these differences is accounted for by the higher socioeconomic status of students in private schools. A substantial portion is explained by the varying peer-group characteristics in private and public schools. After accounting for peer characteristics, the average private-school effect across all 10 countries is zero, though with some variance around this mean (the effects range between-0.2 and 0.2 standard deviations). Evidence on selection bias is inconclusive, but the paper argues that these effects may constitute an upper boundary to the true effects. These results may help in predicting the impact of relatively small voucher programs. In this respect, transferring students to private schools would yield substantial increases in student achievement, remembering, however, the strong evidence that most of these gains would arise from the beneficial effect of "better" peer groups, as opposed to greater school effectiveness. Hence, the policy usefulness of the current empirical evidence should not be overstated. (Contains 68 references, 7 tables, and 2 figures.) (RT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

¿Eficiencia o suficiencia en el sector de gestión privada?

“…En contraposición, el estudio realizado por Somers et al (2011) muestra cómo la mejora educativa de la escuela privada por encima de la estatal cae, e incluso llega a ser negativa en algunos casos, a medida que se va controlando por variables del contexto socioeconómico del alumno y las características de los compañeros de aula. allocated?…”

¡No lucro! … from protest catch cry to presidential policy: is this the beginning of the end of the Chilean neoliberal model of education?

“…The relative performance of students from municipal schools and from private subsidised schools has been a pervasive theme (Parry 1996, 1997a, 1997b, 1997c, 1997d, Gauri 1998, McEwan 2001, 2002, Somers et al 2004, McEwan et al 2008, Elacqua et al 2011, with a remarkable degree of congruence of results over a lengthy time-period:…”

Effects of School Characteristics on Grades in Compulsory School

“…Research on the "independent school effect" is somewhat inconsistent. Some studies have found a positive effect of independent schools on student achievement and grades, whereas other studies have only found modest and often statistically insignificant effects (Somers, McEwan, & Willms, 2001). Somers et al (2001) have indeed argued that many studies of "the independent school effect" have been misinterpreted since accounting for the characteristics of student peer groups has been neglected.…”

“…Some studies have found a positive effect of independent schools on student achievement and grades, whereas other studies have only found modest and often statistically insignificant effects (Somers, McEwan, & Willms, 2001). Somers et al (2001) have indeed argued that many studies of "the independent school effect" have been misinterpreted since accounting for the characteristics of student peer groups has been neglected. They showed that the relationship between independent schools and grades is positive, significant and quite large but, when accounting for the effects of student background, the achievement differences declined and, furthermore, after accounting for peer-group characteristics, the differences in achievement became even smaller, and indeed were on some occasions negative.…”

“…McEwan (2000) has also suggested that many studies investigating the independent school effect suffer from problems due to the lack of control for peer effects and socio-economic background on the school level. Studies which use an extensive control for peers, neighbourhood and school characteristics and a multilevel approach often find statistically insignificant or small independent school effects (Figlio & Stone, 1999;McEwan, 2000;Somers et al, 2001). -Hammond et al (2006) reviewed a large number of studies and found that smaller schools seem to produce favourable student outcomes, such as higher achievement and lower drop-out rates.…”