Publication Cover
School Effectiveness and School Improvement
An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice
Volume 30, 2019 - Issue 2
1,139
Views
6
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

The relative effectiveness of private and public schools: evidence from Kenya

ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 104-130 | Received 16 Oct 2017, Accepted 27 Aug 2018, Published online: 04 Oct 2018

References

  • Abdulkadirolu, A., Pathak, P., & Walters, C. (2015). School vouchers and student achievement: First-year evidence from the Louisiana scholarship program (Working Paper No. 2015.06). Retrieved from https://seii.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SEII-Discussion-Paper-2015.06-Abdulkadiroğlu-Pathak-Walters.pdf
  • Ackerman, M., & Egalite, A. J. (2017). A critical look at methodologies used to evaluate charter school effectiveness. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 29(4), 363–396. doi:10.1007/s11092-017-9266-0
  • Alcott, B., & Rose, P. (2016). Does private schooling narrow wealth inequalities in learning outcomes? Evidence from East Africa. Oxford Review of Education, 42(5), 495–510. doi:10.1080/03054985.2016.1215611
  • Arenas, A. (2004). Privatization and vouchers in Colombia and Chile. International Review of Education, 50(3–4), 379–395. doi:10.1007/s11159-004-2629-z
  • Aslam, M. (2009). The relative effectiveness of government and private schools in Pakistan: Are girls worse off? Education Economics, 17(3), 329–354. doi:10.1080/09645290903142635
  • Azam, M., Kingdon, G., & Wu, K. B. (2016). Impact of private secondary schooling on cognitive skills: Evidence from India. Education Economics, 24(5), 465–480. doi:10.1080/09645292.2015.1110116
  • Baum, D. R., Lewis, L., Lusk-Stover, O., & Patrinos, H. A. (2014). What matters most for engaging the private sector in education: A framework paper. Washington, DC: World Bank.
  • Bold, T., Kimenyi, M., Mwabu, G., & Sandefur, J. (2013). The high return to private schooling in a low-income country (Africa Growth Initiative Working Paper No. 5). Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/02-private-schooling.pdf
  • Chudgar, A., & Quin, E. (2012). Relationship between private schooling and achievement: Results from rural and urban India. Economics of Education Review, 31(4), 376–390. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.12.003
  • Chumacero, R. A., Gómez, D., & Paredes, R. D. (2011). I would walk 500 miles (if it paid): Vouchers and school choice in Chile. Economics of Education Review, 30(5), 1103–1114. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.05.015
  • Cook, T. D., Shadish, W. R., & Wong, V. C. (2008). Three conditions under which experiments and observational studies produce comparable causal estimates: New findings from within-study comparisons. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 27(4), 724–750. doi:10.1002/pam.20375
  • D’Agostino, R. B., Jr. (1998). Propensity score methods for bias reduction in the comparison of a treatment to a non-randomized control group. Statistics in Medicine, 17(19), 2265–2281. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0258(19981015)17:19<2265::AID-SIM918>3.0.CO;2-B
  • Day Ashley, L., Mcloughlin, C., Aslam, M., Engel, J., Wales, J., Rawal, S., … Rose, P. (2014). The role and impact of private schools in developing countries: Final report. London: Department for International Development.
  • Desai, S., Dubey, A., Vanneman, R., & Banerji, R. (2009). Private schooling in India: A new educational landscape. In S. Bery, B. Bosworth, & A. Panagariya (Eds.), India policy forum (Vol. 5, pp. 1–38). New Delhi: SAGE.
  • Dixon, P., Tooley, J., & Schagen, I. (2013). The relative quality of private and public schools for low-income families living in slums of Nairobi, Kenya. In P. Srivastava (Ed.), Low-fee private schooling: Aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? (pp. 83–103). Oxford, UK: Symposium Books.
  • Ejakait, E., Mutisya, M., Ezeh, A., Oketch, M., & Ngware, M. (2011). Factors associated with low achievement among students from Nairobi’s urban informal neighborhoods. Urban Education, 46(5), 1056–1077. doi:10.1177/0042085911400323
  • Elacqua, G. (2012). The impact of school choice and public policy on segregation: Evidence from Chile. International Journal of Educational Development, 32(3), 444–453. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.08.003
  • Guo, S., & Fraser, M. W. (2015). Propensity score analysis: Statistical methods and applications (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  • Hanushek, E. A., Kain, J. F., Markman, J. M., & Rivkin, S. G. (2003). Does peer ability affect student achievement? Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18(5), 527–544. doi:10.1002/jae.741
  • Härmä, J., & Rose, P. (2012). Is low-fee private primary schooling affordable for the poor? Evidence from rural India. In S. L. Robertson, K. Mundy, A. Verger, & F. Menashy (Eds.), Public private partnerships in education: New actors and modes of governance in a globalizing world (pp. 243–258). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
  • Heckman, J. J. (1976). The common structure of statistical models of truncation, sample selection and limited dependent variables and a simple estimator for such models. Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, 5(4), 475–492.
  • Heckman, J. J. (1979). Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica, 47(1), 153–161. doi:10.2307/1912352
  • Heyneman, S. P. (2009). International perspectives on school choice. In M. Berends, M. G. Springer, D. Ballou, & H. J. Walberg (Eds.), Handbook of research on school choice (pp. 79–96). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Heyneman, S. P., & Stern, J. M. B. (2014). Low cost private schools for the poor: What public policy is appropriate? International Journal of Educational Development, 35, 3–15. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2013.01.002
  • Hoxby, C. M. (2003). School choice and school productivity: Could school choice be a tide that lifts all boats? In C. M. Hoxby (Ed.), The economics of school choice (pp. 287–341). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
  • Hsieh, C.-T., & Urquiola, M. (2006). The effects of generalized school choice on achievement and stratification: Evidence from Chile’s voucher program. Journal of Public Economics, 90(8–9), 1477–1503. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2005.11.002
  • Imberman, S. A., Kugler, A. D., & Sacerdote, B. I. (2012). Katrina’s children: Evidence on the structure of peer effects from hurricane evacuees. American Economic Review, 102(5), 2048–2082. doi:10.1257/aer.102.5.2048
  • James, E. (1987). The public/private division of responsibility for education: An international comparison. Economics of Education Review, 6(1), 1–14. doi:10.1016/0272-7757(87)90028-8
  • James, E. (1994). The public-private division of responsibility for education. International Journal of Educational Research, 21(8), 777–783. doi:10.1016/0883-0355(94)90003-5
  • Jimenez, E., Lockheed, M. E., & Paqueo, V. (1991). The relative efficiency of private and public schools in developing countries. The World Bank Research Observer, 6(2), 205–218. doi:10.1093/wbro/6.2.205
  • Kimenyi, M. S. (2013). The bad economics of free primary education. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-bad-economics-of-free-primary-education/
  • Kingdon, G. (1996). The quality and efficiency of private and public education: A case-study of urban India. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 58(1), 57–82. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.1996.mp58001004.x
  • Kremer, M., & Holla, A. (2009). Improving education in the developing world: What have we learned from randomized evaluations? Annual Review of Economics, 1, 513–542. doi:10.1146/annurev.economics.050708.143323
  • Languille, S. (2016). “Affordable” private schools in South Africa. Affordable for whom? Oxford Review of Education, 42(5), 528–542. doi:10.1080/03054985.2016.1220086
  • Lara, B., Mizala, A., & Repetto, A. (2011). The effectiveness of private voucher education: Evidence from structural school switches. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 33(2), 119–137. doi:10.3102/0162373711402990
  • Lee, L.-F. (1983). Generalized econometric models with selectivity. Econometrica, 51(2), 507–512. doi:10.2307/1912003
  • Levin, H. M., & Belfield, C. R. (2003). The marketplace in education. Review of Research in Education, 27, 183–219. doi:10.3102/0091732X027001183
  • Lucas, A. M., & Mbiti, I. M. (2012). Access, sorting, and achievement: The short-run effects of free primary education in Kenya. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4(4), 226–253.
  • Machado, J. A. F., & Mata, J. (2005). Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 20(4), 445–465. doi:10.1002/jae.788
  • MacLeod, W. B., & Urquiola, M. (2012). Competition and educational productivity: Incentives writ large (IZA Discussion Paper No. 7063). Bonn: IZA Institute for the Study of Labor.
  • Martin, G. H., & Pimhidzai, O. (2013). Service delivery indicators: Kenya. Washington, DC: World Bank. Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/AFRICAEXT/Resources/SDI-Report-Kenya.pdf
  • McEwan, P. J. (2001). The effectiveness of public, Catholic, and non-religious private schools in Chile’s voucher system. Education Economics, 9(2), 103–128. doi:10.1080/09645290110056958
  • Menashy, F. (2014). Theorizing privatization in education: Comparing conceptual frameworks and the value of the capability approach. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 16(1), 13–25.
  • Ministry of Education Science and Technology. (2014). National education sector plan – Volume one: Basic education programme rationale and approach 2013/2018. Nairobi: Author.
  • Neal, D. (1997). The effects of Catholic Secondary Schooling on Educational Achievement. Journal of Labor Economics, 15(1), 98–123. doi:10.1086/209848
  • Nishimura, M., & Byamugisha, A. (2011). The challenges of universal primary education policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. In J. N. Hawkins & W. J. Jacob (Eds.), Policy debates in comparative, international, and development education (pp. 225–245). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Nishimura, M., & Yamano, T. (2013). Emerging private education in Africa: Determinants of school choice in Rural Kenya. World Development, 43, 266–275. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2012.10.001
  • Ohba, A. (2013). Do low-cost private school leavers in the informal settlement have a good chance of admission to a government secondary school? A study from Kibera in Kenya. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 43(6), 763–782. doi:10.1080/03057925.2012.733536
  • Oketch, M., Mutisya, M., Ngware, M., & Ezeh, A. C. (2010). Why are there proportionately more poor pupils enrolled in non-state schools in urban Kenya in spite of FPE policy? International Journal of Educational Development, 30(1), 23–32. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2009.08.001
  • Oketch, M., Mutisya, M., Ngware, M., Ezeh, A. C., & Epari, C. (2010). Free primary education policy and pupil school mobility in urban Kenya. International Journal of Educational Research, 49(6), 173–183. doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2011.01.002
  • O’Shaughnessy, T. (2007). Parental choice and school quality when peer and scale effects matter. Economics of Education Review, 26(4), 501–515. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2005.05.009
  • Rosenbaum, P. R., & Rubin, D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41–55. doi:10.2307/2335942
  • Sacerdote, B. (2011). Peer effects in education: How might they work? How big are they, and how much do we know thus far? In E. A. Hanushek, S. Machin, & L. Woessmann (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (Vol. 3, pp. 249–277). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Sass, T. R., Zimmer, R. W., Gill, B. P., & Booker, T. K. (2016). Charter high schools’ effects on long-term attainment and earnings. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 35(3), 683–706. doi:10.1002/pam.21913
  • Somers, M.-A., McEwan, P. J., & Willms, J. D. (2004). How effective are private schools in Latin America? Comparative Education Review, 48(1), 48–69. doi:10.1086/379841
  • Srivastava, P., & Walford, G. (2016). Non-state actors in education in the Global South. Oxford Review of Education, 42(5), 491–494. doi:10.1080/03054985.2016.1217695
  • StataCorp. (2017). Stata treatment-effects reference manual: Potential outcomes/counterfactual outcomes (Release 15). College Station, TX: Stata Press. Retrieved from https://www.stata.com/manuals/te.pdf
  • Tooley, J., & Dixon, P. (2005). Private education is good for the poor: A study of private schools serving the poor in low-income countries. Washington, DC: Cato Institute. Retrieved from https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/tooley.pdf
  • Tooley, J., Dixon, P., & Stanfield, J. (2008). Impact of free primary education in Kenya: A case study of private schools in Kibera. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 36(4), 449–469. doi:10.1177/1741143208095788
  • Uribe, C., Murnane, R. J., Willett, J. B., & Somers, M.-A. (2006). Expanding school enrollment by subsidizing private schools: Lessons from Bogotá. Comparative Education Review, 50(2), 241–277. doi:10.1086/500695
  • Uwezo. (2013). Are our children learning? Literacy and numeracy across East Africa. Nairobi: Twaweza East Africa.
  • Uwezo. (2016). Are our children learning? Uwezo Kenya sixth learning assessment report. Nairobi: Twaweza East Africa. Retrieved from http://www.uwezo.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/UwezoKenya2015ALAReport-FINAL-EN-web.pdf
  • Vandenberghe, V., & Robin, S. (2004). Evaluating the effectiveness of private education across countries: A comparison of methods. Labour Economics, 11(4), 487–506. doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2004.02.007
  • Verger, A., Bonal, X., & Zancajo, A. (2016). What are the role and impact of public-private partnerships in education? A realist evaluation of the Chilean education quasi-market. Comparative Education Review, 60(2), 223–248. doi:10.1086/685557
  • Wasanga, P. M., Ogle, M. A., & Wambua, R. M. (2012). The SACMEQ III Project in Kenya: A study of the conditions of schooling and the quality of education. Nairobi: Kenya National Examinations Council. Retrieved from http://www.sacmeq.org/sites/default/files/sacmeq/reports/sacmeq-iii/national-reports/kenya_national_report.pdf
  • World Bank. (2018). EdStats. Retrieved July 17, 2017, from http://datatopics.worldbank.org/education

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.