The School-Level Impact of Performance Monitoring Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Realist Synthesis

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Implemention of National and State Policies and Initiatives

Abstract

This paper reports on a systematic review through realist synthesis of the impact of system-wide performance monitoring on improving the quality of schools in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As part of a more extensive review of school accountability policies, we identified and reviewed two-dozen studies, published since 2001, about school-level impact of Educational Management Information Systems (EMIS); uses of performance monitoring in school development planning; and design and uses of school performance ‘report cards’ in sub-Saharan Africa, and to a more limited extent, Latin America, and East and South Asia. The paper illustrates realist synthesis as one promising approach to supporting intelligent policy development and implementation, given the complex conditions of educational systems and wide variability in available literature.

Authors

• David H. Eddy Spicer, University of Virginia

• Melanie Ehren, University College London

• Mukdarut Bangpan, Institute of Education - London

• Frank Perrone, University of Virginia