EDUCATIONAL QUALITY differs a great deal, both between countries and between schools in the same country. An important explanation for the differences might be found in the control and governance of schools. This is the subject of this study. The analysis shows to what extent schools use 20 basic ways of working for operational control, follow-up, management by objectives and dealing with staff. The data material builds on telephone interviews with rectors for 1 800 schools in Brazil, India, Italy, Canada, Britain, Sweden, Germany and the US. 88 schools are included. The results are related to school performance in the form of student results.
LARGE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES. Britain is at the top of the ranking made in the study of the quality of control and governance, followed by Sweden, Canada and the US. Germany is in the middle. Italy and Brazil are at the bottom and India holds the very lowest position. The differences between countries are more obvious for education than for the construction industry and medical care in similar studies.
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENT RESULTS. There is a strong relationship between the quality of control and governance for schools and student results. As compared to other studies, control and governance show a stronger relationship with student results than competition between schools, teacher quality and class size.
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS EXCEL. Independent schools get higher grades for the quality of control and governance than state schools and completely private schools. These differences are largely related to management and the responsibility that is required from the management. Rectors at independent schools do more often have a long-term, well-communicated strategy for the school. School principals do also hold them responsible for student performance to a larger extent.
AUTHOR Nicholas Bloom, Professor of Economics, Stanford University. E-mail: nbloom@stanford.edu.
Renata Lemos, PhD in Economics, Cambridge University and Centre for Economic Performance at London School of Economics. E-mail: R.Lemos@lse.ac.uk.