Gustavo Arcia

School autonomy and accountability in Thailand: a systems approach for assessing policy intent and implementation

There is a consensus on the need for Thailand to reform its education system to be able to compete with other high performing countries in the region. In terms of learning outcomes, the most recent evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment shows little improvement over time. This paper uses the World Banks Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) approach in Thailand to contrast policy intent and policy implementation in school autonomy and accountability. The policy implementation data were obtained from a survey of school principals of the schools that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment and merged the data sets. First, the study analyzes the gap between policy intent and policy implementation. Then it examines the effect of the gaps on various schooling outcomes while controlling for covariates. The analysis finds significant differences between the Systems Approach for Better Education Results indicators of policy intent and policy implementation in all areas assessed by the indicators. Schools in Thailand exercise more flexibility in their personnel management in practice than what is intended by policy; student assessments need to address issues of content, reliability, and validity and school accountability needs to improve the interpretation of student assessments to make schools more accountable. There is a positive association between the Programme for International Student Assessment scores and school autonomy and accountability.

Saint Kitts and Nevis Education Management Information System

The Education Management Information System (EMIS) in St. Kitts and Nevis is part of the Education Planning Division of the Ministry of Education. It functions in collaboration with the Chief Education Officer and other education officers. Four key objectives of St. Kitts EMIS have been established: collect and analyze educational data; inform policymakers; provide feedback to stakeholders; and monitor and support schools. This report includes the following headings: facilities and equipment, EMIS staff, EMIS data, data collection, data processing, and publications.

The Commonwealth of Dominica Education Management Information System

Dominica is transitioning from a paper-based Education Management Information System (EMIS) to a fully computerized system. The new, fully computerized system will: facilitate information-based planning and decision-making, reduce the costs associated with the paper-based EMIS, provide multipoint access for data users, facilitate easy transmission of data to regional and international agencies, and foster efficient collection, analysis and reporting. This report includes the following headings: facilities and equipment, EMIS staff, EMIS data, data collection, data processing, and publications.

Generating and Interpreting Output Tables and Graphs

This chapter provides detailed descriptions of the ADePT Edu output. It also presents the formulas for calculating the various indicators and explains how to interpret the indicators. ADePT Edu produces two types of tables, which appear as formatted Excel spreadsheets.1 Output information tables include tables of contents, lists of errors and warnings, and variable settings. Indicator tables provide information on school participation, school progression, school attainment, education expenditures, and labor market outcomes (table 4.1). Indicators are disaggregated by the following characteristics: