Evaluation Of Educational Policies Research Articles

Adolescent Street Boy Urchins and Vocational Training in Northern Nigeria

In northern Nigeria, over 80% of the unskilled and uneducated adolescent street boys, or Almajiris, are from the ethnic Hausa-Fulani tribes. They depend on street begging and menial jobs for daily survival. In dealing with the situation, state vocational centers were established as the Millennium Hope Project (MHP) to provide the boys with trades and skills for self-reliance and socioeconomic transformations. This article presents findings from an educational policy evaluation research study of the MHP implementation and outcomes. The research was based on an ethnographic approach using multimodal data derived from interviews and observations and data analysis-involved transcription, categorization, and coding. Major themes include the cultural identities and statuses of the boys, curriculum implementation and management of the project, socioeconomic transformation of learning outcome, and the challenges and positive impacts of the MHP on the boys. The themes are discussed using the boys' “voices” and pertinent literature. The conclusion includes educational policy remedies for future reforms and modification of the project.

Evaluating the Quality of Italian Local Vocational Training Systems

In Europe, the aim of achieving a knowledge-based society makes the quality of training systems a topic of crucial importance. Italy is also interested in working out strategies and tools for improving its training supply. To this end the Ministry of Labour asked a public research institute, the Institute for the Development of Workers' Vocational Training (ISFOL), to design a self-assessment tool (SAT) for evaluating the quality of regional training systems. The article tracks the logical and chronological course undertaken to design the SAT, bearing in mind the current conditions of Italian public authorities responsible for the programming, management and evaluation of vocational education and training policies. The SAT methodological choices and its design are described, as well as its application by all Italian central and northern regions. The article concludes by mapping out ways in which the SAT can be used and pointing out some still unresolved issues.

Econometric Methods for Causal Evaluation of Education Policies and Practices: A Non-Technical Guide

Education policy-makers and practitioners want to know which policies and practices can best achieve their goals. But research that can inform evidence-based policy often requires complex methods to distinguish causation from accidental association. Avoiding econometric jargon and technical detail, this paper explains the main idea and intuition of leading empirical strategies devised to identify causal impacts and illustrates their use with real-world examples. It covers six evaluation methods: controlled experiments, lotteries of oversubscribed programs, instrumental variables, regression discontinuities, differences-indifferences, and panel-data techniques. Illustrating applications include evaluations of early-childhood interventions, voucher lotteries, funding programs for disadvantaged, and compulsory-school and tracking reforms.

Evaluación del costo-efectividad del gasto social en educación y salud en Bolivia

Una de las mayores preocupaciones de la política de desarrollo reside en mejorar la calidad de los recursos humanos para alcanzar niveles de productividad más altos. La calidad en el trabajo puede alcanzarse por medio de la educación y el mejoramiento de los niveles de salud y nutrición de la población. El presente trabajo apela al Análisis Costo-efectividad como una forma de evaluar el impacto del gasto social en Bolivia a lo largo de una década, el cual, independientemente de los diversos cambios de administración gubernamental que ocurrieron, se mantuvo consistente, y, lo que es más importante, mostró resultados efectivos en la población estudiantil y en la salud de la población. La limitación recurrente reside en la disponibilidad de información estadística desagregada a nivel municipal para evaluar la efectividad del gasto social a ese nivel. Ello restringe de manera determinante las labores de monitoreo y evaluación de las políticas públicas de educación y salud, tanto a nivel nacional como a nivel local y regional por las entidades estatales correspondientes.

Collaborative evaluation: balancing rigour and relevance in a research study of restorative approaches in schools in Scotland

Restorative Practices (RPs) in schools developed out of growing interest in Restorative Justice in the community. Schools looking for strategies to address disaffection, behaviour difficulties and violence were attracted by the key ideas: the need to restore good relationships when there has been conflict or harm; and develop a school ethos, policies and procedures that reduce the possibilities of such conflict and harm. In 2004, the Scottish Executive funded a pilot project on RPs in three Councils, commissioning a team based at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities to carry out a two‐year evaluation in 18 pilot schools. The methods were negotiated throughout the research period with a range of stakeholders, including the funders, the Councils and key school personnel. This article will focus on some methodological questions arising from the evaluation, and on the issue of the relationship of the research to policy and practice development. The approach is seen to offer a useful model for the development and evaluation of educational practice and policy when applied with appropriate concern for the balance of methodological rigour with relevance and responsiveness to practice.

Educational Policy Evaluation and Application of Education Indicators in Developing Countries

Educational Policy Evaluation and Application of Education Indicators in Developing Countries

Alternative Approaches to Evaluation in Empirical Microeconomics

This paper reviews some of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching, instrumental variables, discontinuity design, and control functions. It discusses identification of traditionally used average parameters and more complex distributional parameters. The adequacy, assumptions, and data requirements of each approach are discussed drawing on empirical evidence from the education and employment policy evaluation literature. A workhorse simulation model of education returns is used throughout the paper to discuss and illustrate each approach. The full set of STATA datasets and do-files are available free online and can be used to reproduce all estimation and simulation results.

Conceptualizing Education Policy in Democratic Societies

Although theorists and policy makers agree that schooling should be democratic, what this exactly means often varies. This article establishes a conceptual model for analyzing education policy in democratic societies, based on the key concepts of equality, diversity, participation, choice, and cohesion. The model facilitates the design, evaluation, comparison, and analysis of education policy in democratic societies. It also facilitates analysis of the interrelationship of the five concepts and the ways in which they both complement and conflict with each other. By providing an integrated view of the five democratic values, the model can help policy makers and analysts balance competing demands on education policy. Finally, the model improves understanding of the ways in which educational systems continually adjust to changing theory and economic, political, and social forces, and therefore, it has the potential to help explain and predict educational change.

Performance Measurement Oriented Educational Policy Evaluation: Focused on 'ICT in Education' Policy

Performance Measurement Oriented Educational Policy Evaluation: Focused on 'ICT in Education' Policy

A política de educação especial no estado de Sergipe (1979-2001)

O estudo teve como objetivo realizar uma avaliação da política de educação, no Estado de Sergipe, destinadas às pessoas com deficiências, no período entre 1979 até o ano de 2001. A fonte de informação central da estrutura administrativa de Governo, foi a Secretaria de Estado da Educação, e outras instituições cujo acervo documental tivesse relação com os indicadores sociais definidos para o estudo (1-Planos, programas e projetos de governo; 2-Expansão da rede física; 3-Evolução do número de matrículas; 4-Estrutura organizacional; 5-Recursos humanos, e; 6-Legislação). Foram identificados 136 diferentes documentos distribuídos pelas fontes de informação selecionadas. Os resultados indicaram que houve implementação progressiva de programas e projetos educacionais, com a intervenção de organismos internacionais; progressiva produção de normas e leis, de conseqüências práticas restritas; alterações organizacionais do Estado, envolvendo a Secretaria de Educação e criação de órgãos voltados para pessoas portadoras de deficiência; evolução contínua da rede física; expansão do índice de matrícula, acentuando-se no nível ensino pré-escolar e pouco significativo no ensino de 2º grau e na educação especial. Com relação à política de educação especial nas gestões analisadas nos últimos 22 anos, houve repasses regulares de recursos do governo federal para o governo estadual, decisivos para a política de educação especial no estado, pois os investimentos do governo do estado e dos municípios na educação de crianças e jovens com necessidades educacionais especiais pareceram mínimos ao longo dos últimos 20 anos, o que em parte explica a falta de expressividade da política de educação especial no Estado de Sergipe.

The Evaluation System for Education Policies : the administrative evaluation of government subsidies for compulsory education(II <Special Papers 2>Attempt of Education Policy Evaluation)

The Evaluation System for Education Policies : the administrative evaluation of government subsidies for compulsory education(II <Special Papers 2>Attempt of Education Policy Evaluation)

A Trial to Evaluate the Policy on Revision of the Fundamental Law of Education by the Central Council for Education(II <Special Papers 2>Attempt of Education Policy Evaluation)

A Trial to Evaluate the Policy on Revision of the Fundamental Law of Education by the Central Council for Education(II <Special Papers 2>Attempt of Education Policy Evaluation)

課題研究の残したもの : 司会を終えて(II 教育政策と政策評価を問う)

課題研究の残したもの : 司会を終えて(II 教育政策と政策評価を問う)

Measuring competencies of higher education graduates

AbstractThis chapter describes a new conceptual model for measuring competencies of higher education graduates. The proposed instrument can become a valuable tool for higher education quality management, policy evaluation, and scientific research.

Stepping out of the classroom: involving teachers in the evaluation of national special education policy

Since Richard Rose relaunched BJSE's Research Section as a forum for the discussion of practitioner research, BJSE has published a series of very successful accounts of individual teacher enquiry and action research. In this article from New Zealand, Roseanna Bourke, now working at the Ministry of Education in Wellington, and her two colleagues, Alison Kearney and Jill Bevan‐Brown, both from the Department of Learning and Teaching at Massey University, present an alternative view of the involvement of teachers in research.In 1999, the Ministry of Education asked a team of researchers from Massey University to evaluate the introduction of New Zealand's first national policy for special education, known as Special Education 2000. The 16‐member research team was contracted to provide a three‐year, multi‐method, longitudinal evaluation incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article looks specifically at one aspect of the approach used in the evaluation – the use of teachers as fieldworkers. Teachers across the country were trained as fieldworkers to assist in the collection of data in schools and early childhood centres. Training was given to all teachers on the research aims, methods, ethics, including cultural sensitivity, and rationale for the evaluation. By participating in large‐scale research and acting as ‘fieldworkers’, 68 teachers had the opportunity to develop their skills as researchers, while learning about other schools' perceptions and experiences of the special education policy. The experience provided a means for teachers to become apprenticed into a research culture, and to talk with principals and other teachers about common areas of interest. It also ensured that the research had knowledgeable and credible fieldworkers to collect data in schools.

Alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics

This paper reviews a range of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, instrumental variables, discontinuity design and control functions. It discusses the identification of both the traditionally used average parameters and more complex distributional parameters. In each case, the necessary assumptions and the data requirements are considered. The adequacy of each approach is discussed drawing on the empirical evidence from the education and labor market policy evaluation literature. We also develop an education evaluation model which we use to carry through the discussion of each alternative approach. A full set of STATA datasets are provided free online which contain Monte-Carlo replications of the various specifications of the education evaluation model. There are also a full set of STATA .do files for each of the estimation approaches described in the paper. The .do-files can be used together with the datasets to reproduce all the results in the paper.

Returns to endogenous education: the case of Honduras

The rapid expansion of the education sector in developing countries and the scarcity of public funds have increased the need for an accurate evaluation of educational policies. Estimates of rates of return to education have often been used as an integral part of cost-benefit studies and programme evaluation efforts. This study uses household survey data from Honduras for 1990 to estimate returns to education that allow for worker heterogeneity and individual self-selection in the education process. A sequential estimation procedure is used that enables study of the interaction between educational attainment and earnings determination. It is found that accounting for endogenous educational attainment leads to substantially higher estimated returns to education (compared to traditional least squares estimates). The possible magnitude of the bias underscores the importance of recognizing the role of self-selection and comparative advantage in the education process.

An evaluation of the educational priority policy in relation to early school leaving

In the Netherlands, just like in other EU countries and in the United States, early school leaving is considered to be a major problem. Early school leaving has traditionally largely been approached from the point of view of social inequality and social integration. It has been known for some time that it is largely working-class children and immigrant children that tend to drop out of school early. Since the early eighties there has been somewhat of a shift in policy with regard to early school leavers, away from the problem of social inequality towards the problem of labour market and qualification needs. This has resulted in an entirely new definition of early school leaving, based on the concept of basic qualification: the minimum qualification level which all students (and all people looking for work and in work) should attain. These two perspectives have been incorporated in all of the studies into early school leaving that were carried out within the framework of the evaluation of the Dutch Educational Priority Policy (EPP). In this article we will describe the results of the studies into early school leaving within the first five years of secondary education. Within the framework of the Educational Priority Policy research is regularly carried out among more than 5000 students in secondary education; these students are part of the cohort that was also monitored in primary education. Since 1993, attention has also been paid to drop-outs within these secondary education studies and these drop-outs are now also being monitored. A ftrst study focused on drop-outs during the first four years of secondary education. It was noted that the problem was less serious than initially assumed, in terms of both scale and the kind of situation the drop-outs tend to end up in (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994). A follow-up study was recently carried out into the drop-out rates within

The Evaluation of Educational Policies about High School System Reform: Focusing on the Cases in Chungcheongbuk-do

Much has been discussed, pursued, and insisted on the educational reform. The Final Report of the Presidential Commission for Educational Reform on December 12, 1987 is another important historical accomplishment. Education reform efforts in other major countries, such as the Final Report of the Temporary Educational Council published on August 7, 1987 in Japan, A Nation at Risk in U.S. on April, 1983, America 2000: The Education Strategy suggested by President Bush on April 1991 was full of suggestions that could be implemented here in Korea. In Early 1990s, a new, epoch-making educational policy, The Reform of High School Educational System, was suggested. The major goal of the policy was to readjust the proportion of general high school versus vocational high school.

Educational Attainment and Earnings Determination in Colombia

The expansion of the education sector in developing countries since the mid-1950s is certainly impressive. Between 1950 and 1980, primary and secondary enrollment ratios in many of these countries tripled or quadrupled, and the educational gap with respect to developed countries narrowed.' Although most social planners and politicians would argue that there is still a long way to go before socially optimal levels of education are attained, it is also commonly acknowledged that there is an increasing need for a more careful and systematic evaluation of educational policies and, by implication, public funding priorities.2 Although there is the question of whether all types of education should be considered equally, much of the work in the evaluation process has been devoted to the production of estimates of the social and private rates of return to schooling.3 Most of the early research in this area ignored the effects of educational quality, heterogeneous individual abilities, and other types of selection bias issues. These so-called first-generation models produced relatively high rates of return to additional years of education (from 15% to 30% depending on the country and statistical methodology employed).4 These estimates led to a form of consensus that education was a high priority item in government budget planning. There is only limited evidence of how rates of return have fared subsequent to the growth of the education sector. In the case of Colombia, however, G. Psacharopoulos noted that the rate of return to education fell from about 20% in the early sixties to below 10% by 1979.5 During the eighties a number of second-generation studies