Are School Autonomy and Accountability Policies Converging Internationally? An Analysis Based on the 2000–2015 Waves of PISA

• In Event: 75.011 - The Intended and Side Effects of Accountability Reforms in Education: International Perspectives

Abstract

1. Objectives
The main objectives are to analyze the international convergence of school autonomy and accountability policies across OECD countries, and to explore the contextual/institutional factors associated with higher levels of convergence.

2. Perspective
School autonomy and accountability are two policies that are conceived as inseparable in current global reform agendas. Governments are willing to give more autonomy to schools in different domains to the extent that schools accept stricter supervision via external evaluation and TBA measures. In a more competitive international education environment, international organisations and other education reform advocates see both school autonomy and accountability as the most appropriate policies to strengthen the effectiveness of educational systems (Lingard et al 2014). Nonetheless, despite the strong international emphasis behind these two policies, it is not clear yet to what extent they have penetrated national education systems and the everyday work of schools.

3. Methods
We employ both σ-convergence tests and endogenous clustering methods to identify convergence clubs of countries (Lee et al. 1997; Phillips & Sul 2007). First, we test convergence hypothesis by dividing the units of analysis into subgroups based on some prior information (i.e. OECD vs non-OECD countries, testing and accountability policies, institutional framework). Second, we adopt a data-driven method to identify clusters of convergence subgroups of countries and run probit models to find factors playing a role in determining the formation of convergence clubs among the OECD countries (Bartkowska & Riedl, 2012).

4. Data sources
The main source of information is the OECD-PISA database, from wave 2000 to wave 2015. Our analysis considers data for 55 educational systems. We test the convergence hypothesis for three indices of school autonomy (staffing, budgeting, and curriculum) and a variable related to autonomy in the management of school admission (selection according to academic records). On the other hand, we also analyze the convergence of certain market-driven accountability policies (achievement data are posted publicly).

5. Results
This research provides preliminary evidence on the convergence of certain policies of school autonomy and accountability. We find evidence on the convergence of school autonomy policies, with respect to staff, school budget and curriculum. We also find evidence on the lack of dispersion regarding school admission policies according to the student's academic records, which is an indicator of schools’ organizational autonomy. The same database does not offer evidence on the convergence of countries in the enactment of market-driven accountability policies, such as the publication of school scores. Finally, we reflect on the contextual and institutional factors behind the different levels of convergence identified.

6. Scholarly significance
Policy convergence is at the center of core debates in comparative education and global education policy studies. World Culture Theorists observe that policy convergence is internationally advancing in many educational domains (curriculum, national assessments, etc.), but they usually use very generic databases that are based on the formal adoption of the policies in question. The OECD-PISA database offers a unique source to measure, in a longitudinal way, not only the formal adoption of policies but also their real appropriation and implementation at the school level.

Authors

• Gerard Ferrer-Esteban, Autonomous University of Barcelona

• Antoni Verger, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona