Towards identifying policies to address educational quality

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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Towards identifying policies to address educational quality Servaas van der Berg Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University PSPPD Project – 28 March 2011

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Towards identifying policies to address educational quality . Servaas van der Berg Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University PSPPD Project – 28 March 2011. Issues. SA school performance in perspective: Schools and the labour market Weak performance, even in African context - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Towards identifying policies to address educational quality

Page 1: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Towards identifying policies to address

educational quality

Servaas van der BergDepartment of Economics, Stellenbosch

UniversityPSPPD Project – 28 March 2011

Page 2: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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IssuesSA school performance in perspective:• Schools and the labour market• Weak performance, even in African context• Poverty cannot explain this – SA’s poor fare worse than Africa’s

poor• The school system has two parts, one functioning fairly well, the

other extremely weakly• Resources bring little improvement in weak schools, due to

functionality issues

Features of poorly functioning schools:• Slow macro pacing, poor use of instructional time, low

curriculum coverage• Low cognitive demand, weak assessment, little feedback• Lack of textbooks/workbooks/reading material (some

teachers think textbooks and workbooks are ‘not applicable’ in FP; libraries seldom function)

• Problems with second language teaching and learningPolicy directions

Page 3: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

SA’s dualistic school system and labour marketHigh productivity jobs &

incomes• ±10% of labour force – mainly

professional, managerial & skilled jobs • Requires graduates, good quality

matric, or good vocational skills • Historically mainly whites

Low productivity jobs & incomes• Often manual or low skill jobs• Limited or low quality education • Minimum wage can exceed their

productivity

High quality schools• ±10% of schools, mainly ex-white,

but racial composition changed• Produce strong cognitive skills • Teachers well qualified, schools

function well, good assessment, parents involved

Low quality schools• Produce very weak cognitive skills• Teachers less qualified, de-motiva-

ted, many schools dysfunctional, weak assessment, little parental involvement, strong union presence

• Mainly former black (DET) schools

• Big demand for good schools, despite fees

• A few schools cross the divide

• Vocational training

• Affirmative action

• Some talented, motivated or

lucky students manage the

transition

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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Education affects labour market outcomes

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 150.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Education (years)

Log o

f w

age p

er

hour

(condit

ional)

Log of wage, 2005(conditional)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 150.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.91.0

Education (years)

Em

plo

ym

ent

pro

babilit

y(c

ondit

ional)

Employment probability, 2005(conditional)

• Good education provides access to top end of labour market – (better) jobs, higher wages

• Skills shortage at top end causes a wage premium

• Oversupply of unskilled workers depresses wages at bottom end

• Race between demand and supply of skills will determine skills premium

• This premium and the distribution of educational attainment are currently central to SA income inequality

Page 5: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Education also determines individual prospects – with a potential vicious circle of weak education and poverty

2. Cognitive ability in early

childhood3. Educational performance in

early school years

4. Educational achievement

at matric5. Ultimate educational attainment and quality

6. Labour market

performance

1.SES at birth

Page 6: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Black matriculants, 1982-2007 (’000)

Endorsements (University exemptions)

Other matric passes

Total

1982 7 27 341992 34 117 1512007 51 241 292Growth rate p.a. 1982-1992

17.1% 15.8% 16.1%

Growth rate p.a. 1992-2007

2.7% 4.9% 4.5%

Potentially holds back economic growth and black social mobility

Page 7: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Literacy score in PIRLS 2006

565

500

405

302

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

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Page 8: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

% below low international benchmark (400) in PIRLS 2006 (Gr.4; in SA Gr.5)

1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 9151618

343640

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These are “very low reading achievers”, “at serious risk of not learning how to read” (Trong 2009) – yet quite a number of them eventually pass matric

Page 9: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Mean Maths score in TIMMS 2003

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Page 10: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

% of SA students exceeding performance at 75th percentile of developed countries

(“who would ‘make it’ economically in developed countries")

Page 11: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Mean Reading scores (SACMEQ III)

Mala

wi

Zam

bia

Leso

tho

Moza

mbiq

ue

Uganda

South

Afr

ica

Nam

ibia

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babw

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SA

CM

EQ

III

Bots

wana

Zanzi

bar

Kenya

Sw

azi

land

Mauri

tius

Seyc

helle

s

Tanza

nia

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

Me

an

Re

ad

ing

sco

re

Page 12: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Mean Reading score for poorest 25% (SACMEQ III)

Zam

bia

South

Afr

ica

Mala

wi

Leso

tho

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Nam

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Uganda

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350

400

450

500

550

600

Me

an

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Page 13: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Lowess regression on schools’ average maths score, SA & other SACMEQ countries

Page 14: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Schools’ average maths score, SA vs. other SACMEQII countries

Page 15: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100110

Indian

Coloured

Aggregate Matric Average

Kernel density curves of matric average by race, 2005

Page 16: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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PIRLS reading scores by school type

0.0

01

.00

2.0

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.00

4.0

05

kden

sity

re

ad

ing te

st s

core

0 200 400 600 800reading test score

African language schools English/Afrikaans schools

Page 17: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Gr.6 reading test scores by SES quintile

Page 18: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

0 20 40 60Total numeracy score NSES 2009

African lnaguage students in ex-DET schoolsAfrican language students in ex-white schools

Afrikaans/English language students in ex-white schools

kernel = epanechnikov, bandwidth = 1.5053

NSES2009

Numeracy score by ex-dept & home languageNumeracy score by former dept & home language, NSES

Page 19: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Literacy achievement by former department and grade, NSES

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4K

ern

el D

ensity

0 20 40 60 80 100Literacy score

DET (B) 2007 DET (B) 2008DET (B) 2009 HOA (W) 2007HOA (W) 2008 HOA (W) 2009

Page 20: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

1020

3040

50N

umer

acy

scor

e

-2 -1 0 1 2Socio-economic status

African language in ex-white schools Ex-DET schoolsAfrikaans/English lin ex-white schools

NSES2009Numeracy score by SES & ex-dept & homelanguage

Gap explains middle class flight to ex-white schools

Numeracy score by SES, former dept and home language

Page 21: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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School & individual SES & Maths score, SACMEQIII

400

500

600

700

800

Lin

ear

pre

dic

tion

(Mat

hs)

-2 -1 0 1 2Mean School SES (Average SES of students in the class)

Quintile 1 Quintile 2Quintile 3 Quintile 4Quintile 5

Page 22: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Results from NSESMacro-pacing:• Maths topics covered: 75% of HOA but just 26% of DET

learners were in schools where more than 25 different maths topics were covered

• Literacy/language exercises: 33 in DET schools, 75 in HoA schools • Some teachers may cover new topics slowly to accommodate prior

learning deficits• However, insufficient curriculum coverage a major indicator of

inefficiency

Resources: Only weak evidence that pupil-teacher ratios, class sizes, teacher knowledge and access to textbooks and information technology improve outcomes

Teacher and management “efficiency” variables have a significant positive effect on learner performance, e.g. • Existence of curriculum planning for a full year• A functional timetable• Good-quality inventories for learning and teaching support materials

(LTSM)• Low teacher absenteeism, up-to-date assessment records • Various measures of curriculum coverage

Page 23: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Some findings from WCED Grade 3 project

Low cognitive demand:• Teachers, principals, curriculum advisors & parents

are oblivious of the level of under-achievement• To correct their behaviour, teachers must first

realise there is something to correct• Setting incentives/structures to ensure appropriate

assessment practices is thus crucial• Few principals take instructional leadership in FP

seriouslyCurriculum advisors: • Do not observe classrooms & teaching• Focus on teaching methods (form) rather than

content and coverage (substance)Teachers confused about curriculum

documents to use

Page 24: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Classroom observations: Literacy & numeracy

Literacy• Limited opportunities to handle books• Limited teaching of reading and writing• Read and write mainly isolated words• Little emphasis on comprehension of text• Little elaboration on learner responses • Reading largely collectivised• Little vocabulary & spelling development or

teaching of phonicsNumeracy• Teachers lack theory of how children develop

number concepts• Use mainly concrete methods for solving problems• Everyday knowledge obscures learning of

mathematics• Extremely slow pace• Low conceptual level of instruction

Page 25: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

WCED study: % of Gr. 3 learners who could verbally answer questions below (in home language)

But ¾ of Gr.3 teachers said they covered times tables 3+ days per week

Yet barely half of teachers were confident that most of their learners could correctly answer “2 times 4”

2 x 2 5 x 5 2 x 3 10 x 10 2 x 2 3 x 6 2 x 3 4 x 5 2 x 4 6 x 6Learner 1 Learner 2 Learner 3 Learner 4 Learner 5

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100% 95%

27%

72%

34%

98%

36%

71%

50%

69%

17%

Page 26: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

Teacher views on % of class at appropriate level in Numeracy for grade

at beginning and end of year

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 End of Grade 30%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

47%

79%

56%

85%

55%

84%

22%

Grade 1 teacher

Grade 2 teacher

Grade 3 teacher

% achieving WCED standard in tests

Page 27: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

School level CASS and exam marks for Maths HG 2005, and trend line

Page 28: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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PIRLS

Classroom practices & homework frequency • Different classroom practices may bring different

benefits in low-SES schools: • In African-language schools, regular classroom

exercises as well as diagnostic testing had positive and significant impacts on reading

• A limited homework impact is found for African-language schools (though individuals who spend more time on reading homework of their own accord perform better)

• Extended learning time is not common in African-language schools (fewer than 40% provide this facility). However, if it is provided and if more than 75% of learners take part in it, then there is a significant, positive impact on test performance

Page 29: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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PIRLS: Parental involvement

At household level, positive effects on reading scores come from: • Help with homework• Parents’ education• Regular joint reading activities at home• Parent-child communication in language of test

School SES may affect the nature, quality and impact of parent involvement:• If parents doubt their own ability to make useful

contributions they are less likely to become involved, or their involvement may not be of sufficient depth

• This may explain the minor impact of parental involvement in poorer schools

Page 30: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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SACMEQ results & policy conclusions

• At least one year of quality pre-school education will assist poorer learners especially

• Poor learners have less access to textbooks – evidence shows more textbooks can improve reading performance

• Practical policies should be explored that encourage teachers to prescribe homework and enable learners to complete it

• Teachers’ subject expertise has only a small positive impact• At Grade 6 level policy should perhaps

rather focus on helping teachers to convey subject material

Page 31: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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How weak is teacher subject knowledge?

In SACMEQ III, Maths teachers participated in a Maths tests & English teachers in a reading testExample of one answer on a Maths test:

• Most Grade 6 Maths teachers (57%) thought the answer was 15 percent (presumably they just calculated 75 minus 60 =15 !!!)

• Only 24% of Maths teachers got this right, i.e. answered 25%

Page 32: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Policy directionsImportance of accountability structures in public

sector:• In schools, accountability needs to focus on time,

coverage, assessment• Principals need to take instructional leadership

seriouslyImportance of information:• Teachers must know

• Appropriate level of cognitive demand• Required level and pace of coverage are

• Parents/children need to know how they perform• Testing and information flows are thus crucial

• Feedback is crucial – to convert data into information, to allow accountability

Page 33: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Policy directions (cont.)

Specific interventions:• Quality pre-schools• Books (textbooks, workbooks, readers, library

books) from early grades• But library model of provision within schools has

collapsed – alternative models need attention• Homework• Assessment practices – cross-marking, etc.• Teacher subject knowledge – long term issue

(recruitment, entry requirements)• Appointment and contracts of principals

Page 34: Towards identifying policies  to address educational quality

Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy DevelopmentA partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union

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Taking library books home from school

SACMEQII2000

SACMEQIII2007

Yes 49% 32%No 32% 9%No library books available 18% 59%