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Size, Performance and Effectiveness: Cost-Constrained Measures of Best-Practice Performance and Secondary-School Size

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  • Richard Barnett
  • J. Colin Glass
  • Roger Snowdon
  • Karl Stringer

Abstract

Current education policy in the UK requires secondary schools to strive for 'effectiveness' or 'best-practice' performance in producing educational outcomes, while securing cost efficiency in input use when doing so. Given this double policy objective, the present study uses data envelopment analysis to generate performance scores for schools relative to cost-constrained best-practice benchmarks that simultaneously take account of both outcome effectiveness and cost efficiency. The empirical results, relating to the set of Northern Ireland secondary schools, indicate that a positive relationship between effectiveness-efficiency performance scores and secondary school size holds across a range of educational outcomes. Larger schools were still found to outperform smaller ones, on average, when schools were grouped according to gender, school type, and absence/presence of a sixth form. The findings imply that it is inappropriate to assess the performance of schools without taking into account the impact of school size on such performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Barnett & J. Colin Glass & Roger Snowdon & Karl Stringer, 2002. "Size, Performance and Effectiveness: Cost-Constrained Measures of Best-Practice Performance and Secondary-School Size," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 291-311.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:10:y:2002:i:3:p:291-311
    DOI: 10.1080/09645290210127516
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Dimitrios Sotiriadis & Georgios Menexes & Constantinos Tsamadias, 2018. "Investigating the Efficiency of Senior Secondary Schools: Evidence from Schools in the Greek region of Central Macedonia," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 11(2), pages 36-43, September.
    6. Sandra Nieto & Raul Ramos & Juan Carlos Duque, 2012. "Rural-urban differences in educational outcomes: Evidence for Colombia using PISA microdata," ERSA conference papers ersa12p388, European Regional Science Association.
    7. Nieto, S. & Ramos, R., 2011. "¿La sobreeducación de los padres afecta al rendimiento académico de sus hijos?," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 11(3).
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    9. Wei, Hsi-Sheng & Williams, James Herbert & Chen, Ji-Kang & Chang, Hsiu-Yu, 2010. "The effects of individual characteristics, teacher practice, and school organizational factors on students' bullying: A multilevel analysis of public middle schools in Taiwan," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 137-143, January.
    10. Koussihouèdé, Oswald, 2020. "Primary school size and learning achievement in Senegal: Testing the quantity–quality trade-off," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    11. Gabriela Schütz, 2009. "Educational institutions and equality of opportunity," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 34.
    12. Raul Ramos & Juan Carlos Duque & Sandra Nieto, 2012. "“Decomposing the Rural-Urban Differential in Student Achievement in Colombia Using PISA Microdata”," AQR Working Papers 201210, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Mar 2013.
    13. Fiona Steele & Anna Vignoles & Andrew Jenkins, 2007. "The effect of school resources on pupil attainment: a multilevel simultaneous equation modelling approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(3), pages 801-824, July.
    14. Jorge Calero & Josep-Oriol Escardíbul, 2007. "Evaluación de servicios educativos: el rendimiento en los centros públicos y privados medido en PISA-2003," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 183(4), pages 33-66, december.
    15. Sandra Nieto & Raul Ramos, 2014. "“Decomposition of Differences in PISA Results in Middle Income Countries”," IREA Working Papers 201408, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Mar 2014.
    16. CORDERO FERRERA, José Manuel & CRESPO CEBADA, Eva & SANTÍN GONZÁLEZ, Daniel, 2010. "Factors Affecting Educational Attainment: Evidence From Spanish Pisa 2006 Results," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(3).
    17. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Smith, Nina, 2015. "Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 28-43.
    18. Mallikarjun, Sreekanth & Lewis, Herbert F. & Sexton, Thomas R., 2014. "Operational performance of U.S. public rail transit and implications for public policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 74-88.
    19. Kuziemko, Ilyana, 2006. "Using shocks to school enrollment to estimate the effect of school size on student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 63-75, February.
    20. Ramos, Raul & Duque, Juan Carlos & Nieto, Sandra, 2016. "Decomposing the Rural-Urban Differential in Student Achievement in Colombia using PISA Microdata/Una descomposición del diferencial rural-urbano en los rendimientos educativos en Colombia a partir de ," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 34, pages 379-412, Mayo.

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