X-Efficiency and Effective Schools: A New Look at Old Theories

Abstract

In response to demands for school accountability, states now devote much attention to distinguishing among effective and ineffective schools. These efforts, while varying considerably in rigor and sophistication, generally emphasize technical or allocative efficiency (e.g., the marginal productivity of measured inputs employed in various combinations) in schools and sometimes seek to estimate the "cost" of input bundles associated with successful schools. This approach, however, ignores the impact of "x-efficiency" (e.g., school policies, incentives, practices, etc.) on school performance. Drawing upon Leibenstein's seminal 1966 article on the theory of the firm and the "effective schools" research of the 1980s, this article uses a production function approach and basic econometric techniques to interrogate a rich panel of elementary school-level data in order to quantify the effects of x-efficiency on school performance. Findings reveal a substantial impact of school x-efficiency on academic outcomes, far in excess of the contributions of standard, observed school inputs. School influences are greater for mathematics achievement than for reading achievement in the elementary grades with effect sizes averaging 0.45 standard deviations for reading and 0.61 standard deviations for mathematics.

Effect of Public Elementary School Financial Challenges on Student Achievement

“…Parents' awareness of education also influences funding in schools. It has a positive impact on teaching and learning activities and student achievement when the school, student's family, and the community have established a good collaboration to support the school (Addonizio, M, 2009;Bryan & Henry, 2012;Houtenville & Conway, 2008). Parents who have an active role in school administration of education will have an impact on school quality.…”

An Assessment of Schools’ Efficiency of Different Educational Systems

“…Operating expenses (we will tell this variable Opex) has been used as an input in educational process efficiency studies by Casu and Thanassoulis, 2006;Kim et al, 2006;Kao and Hung, 2008;Yuhong and Yongmei, 2008;Addonizio, 2009;and Tyagi et al, 2009, among others.…”

“…Moreover, academic staff (we will tell this variable Teachers) has been used as an input in educational process efficiency studies by Kantabutra and Tang, 2006;Kim et al, 2006;Martín, 2006;Giménez et al, 2007;Spircu et al, 2007;Conroy and Arguea, 2008;Yuhong and Yongmei, 2008;Cordero et al, 2008;Addonizio, 2009;Agasisti, 2009;Cheo, 2009;Franta and Konecny, 2009;Tyagi et al, 2009;Naper, 2010;Ouellette and Vierstraete, 2010;Chen and Chen, 2011;and Thieme et al, 2011, among others.…”

“…The main objective of this study is to analyze the efficiency of elementary schools in Andorra, identifying the variables involved in this process. Some previous studies that followed this general objective in elementary level schools are: Bessent and Bessent (1980), in a Californian urban district; Kim et al (2006), in New York City; Conroy and Arguea (2008), in Florida; Addonizio (2009), in Minnessota; and Barbosa and Wilhelm (2009), in Paraná; and Thieme et al (2011) in Chile. The particular environment in Andorra, with three public educational systems (Andorran, Spanish and French), provide a new context to apply efficiency studies of educational process and results of this study can give new contributions to existent literature in this field.…”

The Impact of Structural Barriers and Facilitators on Early Childhood Literacy Programs in Elementary Charter Schools

“…We contextualize our experiences in the current research on academic achievement in charter schools by attempting to provide a qualitative account of variables that, to date, have primarily been discussed in quantitative studies. That is, we use early childhood literacy as the lens through which we view the "black box" of new and turnaround charter schools to help identify underlying factors that may contribute to the success and failures of charter school reading programs (Addonizio, 2009;Wei, Patel, & Young, 2014). Finally, we use the existing published research on "start-up" charter schools as the background to discuss the findings of our own work in charter schools as researchers and practitioners.…”