Improving Public Sector Management at Scale? Experimental Evidence on School Governance India

Abstract

We present results from a large-scale experimental evaluation of an ambitious attempt to improve management quality in Indian schools (implemented in 1,774 randomly-selected schools). The intervention featured several global "best practices" including comprehensive assessments, detailed school ratings, and customized school improvement plans. It did not, however, change accountability or incentives. We find that the assessments were near-universally completed, and that the ratings were informative, but the intervention had no impact on either school functioning or student outcomes. Yet, the program was perceived to be successful and scaled up to cover over 600,000 schools nationally. We find using a matched-pair design that the scaled-up program continued to be ineffective at improving student learning in the state we study. We also conduct detailed qualitative interviews with frontline officials and find that the main impact of the program on the ground was to increase required reporting and paperwork. Our results illustrate how ostensibly well-designed programs, that appear effective based on administrative measures of compliance, may be ineffective in practice.

Quality Governance Design Good University Governance In The Education Sector: a Literature Review of Concepts Performance Models and Audit Practices From a Risk Management Perspective

“…Once the analysis is complete, draw a conclusion that summarizes the main findings from the literature, including important aspects of GUG and risk management in education. Discuss the implications of the findings, such as how the GUG concept can be applied in an educational context, the most appropriate performance models, and effective audit practices (Muralidharan & Singh, 2020). End the research by compiling a systematic and informative research report.…”

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“…Our assessment of the strength of the evidence is low, not because of the quality of the existing papers but rather because of the limited scope in terms of context and small quantity of the existing research. For example, evidence from a large-scale program in India providing a mix of information and targeted support to improving school performance plans shows no impact on management practices nor student achievement [Muralidharan and Singh, 2020]. A similar program in Mexico, however, shows positive results on student test scores [de Hoyos et al, 2017].…”