School Governance Structure, School Leadership, and Student Achievement: Cross-National Evidence From PISA 2015

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Education Policy

Abstract

Although cross-national evidence suggests that decentralization of educational governance is positively related to student achievement, related research often fails to recognize the separate roles and influences of school boards, principals, and teachers in school governance. In this paper we use data from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment to examine school governance arrangements across 68 countries, and to assess whether differences in these patterns are significantly related to differences in student achievement. We find that (1) school governance structures vary substantially across countries and (2) increases in teacher decision making responsibilities are consistently and positively related to student achievement. In contrast, increases in the responsibilities of principals, school boards, and governments vary according to national and school context.

Authors

• Thomas F. Luschei, Claremont Graduate University

• Dong Wook Jeong, Seoul National University