School factors related to quality and equity: Results from PISA 2000

What effect do the policies and structure of education systems have on educational outcomes? Which school factors are under the control of policy makers to produce the best performance outcomes? These are questions that policy makers and those who run education systems continually ask. A rich body of research in educational effectiveness has highlighted factors at different levels of the education system that appear to be closely associated with higher performance. These include aspects of school context, school inputs and school processes. To help build an evidence base, this book maps the data from PISA 2000 to these aspects. Within the framework of PISA 2000, educational performance is measured in terms of student scores on the reading, mathematical and scientific literacy scales. This book analyses equity in educational performance in terms of performance variation among 15-year-olds and schools, and the extent to which it depends on students' background and the distribution of school inputs. ... This report examines the performance of selective and comprehensive education systems. The mean student performance in selective education systems is an average lower than in comprehensive systems, although there is no evidence that comprehensive systems are more equitable in terms of the total variation in student performance. There is evidence that in many of the participating countries some degree of school autonomy has been realised in the domains of school policies, financial resources, and curriculum and instruction. However, personnel management lies beyond the responsibility of the majority of schools, although there is often more responsibility for this in private schools and having this responsibility is associated with better school performance. ... This report looks at: the extent to which the schools that students attend make a difference in performance; the relative impact of school climate, school policies and school resources on quality and equity; the relationship between the structure of education systems and educational quality and equity; and the effect of decentralisation and privatisation on school performance. It concludes with a summary of how school factors relate to quality and equity, and the implications for policy. (DIPF/Orig.).