School-Based Management in East

Asia and Latin America

October 25,

2007

Emanuela di Gropello

Outline
1.
2.

3.
4.

Definition and Goals of SBM

Characteristics of SBM in Latin America and East
Asia
Impact of SBM in Latin America and East Asia
Lessons Learned and Needs for Further Research

What is School Based

Management?

All SBM programs entail a transfer of responsibilities to

schools

But level and type of responsibilities vary (budget

generation and management, human resource
management, academic policies, etc)

As well as relative roles and responsibilities of school

actors (principal, teachers, parents, students)

Goals of SBM Programs: First and

Second Order Effects
First-Order Effects:
Empower schools (higher autonomy)
Increase participation of parents and community
Build local capacity
Second-Order Effects:
Improve teaching-learning environment, lower costs
Improve schooling outcomes (efficiency, quality,
coverage)

What is the Link between First and SecondOrder Effects?

Allows local decision-makers to determine appropriate

mix of inputs and education policies adapted to local
realities and needs

Improves accountability of principals and teachers to

parents and students

Makes it easier to set up new schools and hire

teachers in remote rural areas (improved flexibility)

Characteristics of SBM in East Asia

and Latin America
o

Trend towards increasing decentralization in East Asia

and Latin America

In most countries, school autonomy co-exists with

decentralization to sub-national levels (complex models
and accountability lines), remaining limited

De-jure school autonomy is generally more limited in

East Asia, but not so for de facto autonomy

Decentralization of DecisionMaking in East Asia

School Autonomy by Functional

Area
o

In both regions, core curricula and standards mantained

centralized, but teaching methods often determined at school level

Decisions on staffing often made by different levels of

government, with very little autonomy at school level (with the
exception of Hong Kong, Central America, some States in Brazil)

Schools have somewhat more autonomy in managing non salary

recurrent and capital resources (see Chile, Central America,
China among others). Resource generation capacity varies in time

School Autonomy by DecisionMaking Actor

o

Principals generally have the highest decision-making

power in budget allocation and human resources,
followed by school boards

Teachers have more autonomy in course content

School boards tend to be more often elected and have

more precise roles and responsibilities in LAC

Responsibility of School Level Actors for

Decisions over Teacher Hiring and Budget
Allocation (de-facto school autonomy)
A.Teachers

B. Budget
allocation

Responsibility of School Level Actors

for Decisions over Course Content (defacto school autonomy)
C. Course content

Impact of SBM in LAC and EAP

Existing (limited) evidence shows that SBM can lead to higher efficiency
and test scores, under certain circumstances, but the mechanisms
through which this would occur are not always clear

More evidence available on impact of SBM at primary level see for

instance Central America, with several studies [Example 1]

Some new evidence available on secondary level see for instance new
studies on PISA and TIMSS [Example 2].
[more general, however, focused on autonomy by functional area more than
SBM per se]

Example 1: SBM in Central America

El

Salvador: EDUCO
Guatemala: PRONADE
Honduras: PROHECO
All primary schools in poor rural areas
Nicaragua:

Autonomous Schools (primary and

secondary schools in urban/rural areas)

Main Components of SBM in

Central America
School

Councils (mostly parents)

Councils functions: teacher management,
school maintenance, some pedagogical
authority
Teachers characteristics: one-year contracts,
generally less benefits
School grants: key in empowering councils,
monthly or quarterly, use of allocation formulae

First Order Effects: School Empowerment and

Community Participation

School grants have been successfully

undertaken, empowering school councils

Empowerment has meant more decisions

taken at the school level with higher community
participation (particularly in Honduras and El
Salvador)

Second Order Effects: From School

Empowerment to Educational Performance
(Efficiency and Quality)

As a result of higher empowerment and community

participation, teachers and schools work hours are
generally higher in autonomous schools (less
absenteeism, less school closings accountability
argument)

Educational achievement, as measured by test scores,

is generally similar (or even higher) in spite of location
in poor areas. This result can be partly related to higher
school and teacher effort (in Honduras and El
Salvador)

Teacher and School Work Hours Higher in

Autonomous Schools
Table 5.8: Teacher Attendance and Work Hours
Variable

Work Hours

Nicaragua
NonAutonom
ous

Autonomou
s

Public

EDUCO

27.3

29.0*

33.7

36.8*

1.4

1.2*

Teacher Absences (a)

Teacher Absences (b)

El Salvador

0.34

0.35

Honduras

Guatemala

Public

PROHECO

Public

PRONADE

13.9

17.4

0.19

0.15*

1.94

1.54*

111.0

113.0*

Days Worked in School

School Closings

29.5

20.5*

Test Scores are Similar (or even Higher) in

Autonomous Schools
Table 5.13: Third/Fourth Grade Test Score Averages By School Type
Model:

Guatemala
World Bank 2002

Honduras
HCRG 2002

El Salvador

Nicaragua

Control

PROHEC
O

Control

EDUCO

Control

AUTO

Control

PRONA
DE

Control

PRONA
DE

Spanish

-0.33

-0.39

0.02

-0.16*

-0.04

0.03

1.75

1.73

-0.03

0.02

Math

-0.27

-0.38*

0.01

-0.07

-0.04

0.03

3.74

3.59

-0.01

0.01

-0.12

0.08*

Science

SES

2.5

2.2*

0.31

-0.46*

0.49

-0.42*

0.66

0.28

4.1

4.5*

Parental
Education

4.2

3.0*

2.5

1.7*

3.2

2.5*

0.53

0.50

5.5

6.2*

Second Order Effects: From School

Empowerment to Educational Performance
(Coverage and Equity)

Due to higher community empowerment, good

coverage results. In particular in isolated rural
areas, where primary enrollment rates
increased substantially in all countries

This coverage increase has led to equity

improvements in education delivery

Less favorable results

Drop-out rates still too high

Often very small classes
Teachers education levels generally less
satisfactory than in traditional schools
Pedagogical models not innovatory
Still a lack of institutional integration and
sustainability

Example 2: Recent Evidence on Impact of

School Based Management from PISA 2000
and 2003 Analysis

By relating efficiency and learning outcome indicators

to school autonomy across some LAC and EAP
countries, recent WB study finds that:
1.

Autonomy in teacher hiring and firing positively related to

performance in LAC, but not EAP

Autonomy in budget generation and allocation positively

related to performance in EAP, but not LAC
[autonomy in texts and course content also positively related
to learning outcomes in EAP, but not to efficiency]
1.

Recent Evidence on Impact of School Based

Management from PISA 2000 and 2003
Analysis
3.

Positive interaction between school socioeconomic level and the impact of autonomy in
schooling processes (such as choice of textbooks,
course content, etc)

3.

Results are generally stronger when principals or

school boards have higher autonomy

Impact of SBM in East Asia and

Latin America
Table 6: Impact of SBM in East Asia and Latin America

East Asia Sample

Latin America Sample

Input Efficiency

Output Efficiency

Input Efficiency

Output Efficiency

0.171**

-0.009

0.236

0.004

Financial (budget generation and management)

Autonomy

-0.046

0.012**

0.039

0.005

Human Resource (only teacher hiring and

firing) Autonomy

0.104

-0.001

-0.364**

0.016

Controls (sorting, selection, public/private

management, use of evaluation)

Included

Included

Included

Included

Pedagogic Autonomy

Note: A negative sign implies positive impact on input efficiency; a positive sign implies positive impact on output efficiency. In bold, significant
coefficients: * 10%; ** 5%; *** 1%.

Impact of SBM in Brazil and Indonesia

Characteristics of High Performing Schools

Recent Evidence on Impact of School Based

Management from PISA 2000 and 2003
Analysis

This evidence seems to indicate:

A higher role for local informational advantages in EAP, maybe

related to better school management capacity (but ambiguous
effect of pedagogical autonomy)

A higher role for accountability advantages in LAC, maybe

related to centralized bureaucracies particularly inefficient at
allocating teachers and making them accountable (but ambiguous
effect of decentralized salary determination)

Importance of different regional and national contexts in

determining the effects of SBM

Recent Evidence on Impact of School Based

Management from PISA 2000 and 2003
Analysis
Little

evidence on how the impact of autonomy

measures works:

Some limited evidence that impact of teacher

management autonomy and pedagogical autonomy
works through lower pupil-teacher ratios, longer
class time, better teacher morale and better school
climate
Some evidence that financial autonomy works
through more educational resources

Other Evidence on Impact of SBM using PISA

and TIMSS (or other international tests)

Wossmann and Gundlach (2004) on EAP - lack of parental

involvement is generally negatively related to performance and
school salary autonomy is positively related to performance in
Japan and Singapore

Nabeshima (2003) on EAP - ambiguous impact of teacher

autonomy and salary determination across countries

Gunnarsson and others (2004) on LAC - parental participation

appears to be more consistently related to higher test scores than
school autonomy (confirming results from Paes de Barros and
Mendonca on Brazil, who find slight positive impact of election of
principals on test scores)

SBM in LAC and East Asia:

Lessons Learned
1.

SBM can lead to higher efficiency and quality but impact depends
on functional area, which, in turn, depends on regional and
country specificities institutions, capacity

2.

case for decentralization of teacher hiring and firing in LAC

case for further budget management decentralization in EAP

Impact also depends on school decision-making actor

case for decentralizing to principals on efficiency grounds?

case for decentralizing to school boards on accountability grounds?
case for decentralizing to teachers on quality grounds?

SBM in LAC and East Asia:

Lessons Learned
3.

Strong accountability lines (upwards and downwards)

are essential and generally complementary in
ensuring the success of a SBM model:

in all models enhance participatory decision-making for

clearer expression of preferences and strengthened oversight
also clearly define roles and responsibilities, strengthen the
capacity of the government for monitoring and auditing,
develop M&E systems and, when applicable, incorporate
quality/efficiency criteria in school transfers

SBM in LAC and East Asia:

Lessons Learned
4.

SBM is successful in poor rural areas for communitybased simple management processes (see Central
America). However, for more complex schooling
processes, need to accompany SBM with effective
capacity building

impact on school performance in Central America could have

been stronger by providing parental training and information
on key areas of school performance

Needs for Further Research

Existing evidence points to the need for more contextspecific country studies, where role of socio-economic
and institutional context can be better assessed

Need to open the black box to understand better the

mechanisms through which SBM works

Need for more formal impact evaluations in primary

and secondary education