An alternative estimate of school-based management impacts on students’ achievements: evidence from the Philippines

Abstract

This paper aims to estimate the impact of school-based management (SBM) on students’ test scores in the Philippines. Estimation results using double differencing (DD) combined with propensity score matching show that SBM increased the average national achievement test score by 4.2 points over three years. The increase in mathematics was 5.7 points. The triple differencing procedure using the pre-intervention period as the baseline provides even larger impact estimates: 8.6 and 11.4 points for average and mathematics scores, respectively. These impacts are larger than the estimate previously reported from the Philippines, probably due to the fact that the sample schools had learned about SBM implementation from experiences accumulated in other provinces that introduced SBM earlier. The empirical results also show that schools with experienced principals and teachers are eager to introduce SBM.