Measuring and managing educational performance

Abstract

Performance measures have come to play a central role in the management of the education sector. This paper identifies a number of desirable properties for educational performance measures, whose breach is likely to result in sub-optimal patterns of educational outcomes and resource management. Recent trends in the study of mathematics in schools give particular cause for concern. The paper examines several outstanding issues that require further attention if performance evaluation techniques are to provide reliable measures of school effectiveness.

Keywords:

• performance evaluation
• education
• data envelopment analysis
• value added
• school effectiveness
• multilevel modelling

²The author is Professor of Public Sector Economics, Finance and Accountancy, and Director of the Centre for Performance Evaluation and Resource Management, at the University of York.

²The author is Professor of Public Sector Economics, Finance and Accountancy, and Director of the Centre for Performance Evaluation and Resource Management, at the University of York.