Measuring the opportunity divide: schools and educational inequality

1
Measuring the opportunity divide schools and
educational inequality

• Albert Motivans
• Yanhong Zhang
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics

IIEP Strategic seminar 22
October 2008
2
Overview

• Contexts and concepts
• Inequalities in enabling inputs for education
• Inequalities in outcomes
• Social gradients
• Between and within school differences
• Inequalities in teaching and learning processes
• How do the inequalities in the organisation of
  learning in schools and classrooms provide a
  context for other types of inequalities?

3
Educational inequality an issue returning to the
global policy agenda?

• Rights-based approaches
• UN declaration on human rights (1948) regardless
  of wealth, ethnicity, sex or religion have the
  same rights guaranteed by law
• CRC (1989), EFA (1990) quality education is a
  basic human right for all
• Economic-based arguments
• education is key to reducing poverty and carries
  significant benefits for individuals, societies
  and economies. Income inequality hinders
  sustainable economic growth and social cohesion.

4
The literature on inequality in society and
education

• Relationship between education inequalities and
  social stratification
• Bourdieu, Passeron et al education is a social
  institution which replicates existing power
  structures it imposes social inequalities
• persistent inequalities (Shavits and Blossfeld)
• The role of families
• Influential early comparative work (eg James
  Coleman et al) in the 1960s emphasised the
  importance of childrens family backgrounds to
  later learning outcomes, a dominant theme
• Schools matter more in developing contexts
• Work of Heyneman and Loxley, Baker and others
  suggest that schools matter more in low-income
  societies

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Defining concepts

• Horizontal equity (equality)
• All children should receive equal treatment
• Vertical equity (equity)
• Unequal children should receive unequal treatment
• Equal educational opportunity
• like vertical equity, but focused on relationship
  between treatment and targets of equity

Berne and Steifel, 1984 in Sherman and Poirier,
2007
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Horizontal equity

• Equal treatment of those who are equally
  situated. A horizontally equitable education
  system would treat students who are alike equally
  and ensure that they experience similar levels of
  educational resources and achieve similar
  results.
• Horizontal equity requires little or no variation
  in the dispersion of access, resources and
  outcomes across students.

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Vertical equity

• Vertical equity recognises that students are not
  all the same and that their starting points
  relative to other students should be considered.
• An education system is made fairer because unique
  resources (e.g. specialised support staff or
  after-school programmes) are provided to achieve
  similar results (e.g. school completion) for a
  particular group of children or in a specific
  region.

8
Equal educational opportunity

• All children should have an equal chance to
  succeed, with this success based on personal
  characteristics such as motivation and effort
  (Berne and Stiefel, 1999).
• Equal educational opportunity should result in no
  difference in educational success based on
  student characteristics or place of residence.
• For there to be equal opportunity, students
  should have access to resources that put them at
  a fair starting line and conditions should be
  set up to allow the possibility for all to
  succeed (ibid).

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Targets and objects of equity

• Targets of equity
• Socioeconomic status (SES)
• Gender
• Race/ethnicity
• Disability statusand many others
• Objects of equity
• Context
• Learner characteristics
• Enabling inputs
• Outcomes

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Framework for education quality
Source EFA GMR, 2005
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Learner-centred framework for education quality
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Inequalities in enabling inputs

• Guiding questions
• Is there little or no variation in the dispersion
  of indicators of resources across regions?
• Do wealthier regions tend to have better access
  or greater resources than poorer ones?
• Do regions that are more urban tend to have
  better access or greater resources than more
  rural regions?

13
Educational equity and public policy comparing
results from 16 countries

• Mainly federal states
• Brazil, China, Pakistan, South Africa, USA and
  others
• Horizontal equity and EEO
• Targets of equity
• - States/districts and their characteristics
• Objects of equity
• Access (participation rates)
• Resources (pupil-teacher ratios, per pupil
  expenditure)

Source Sherman and Poirier, 2007
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Types of summary measures

• Horizontal equity
• Range ratio
• Coefficient of variation
• Adjusted McLoone index
• Gini coefficient
• Equal educational opportunity
• Correlation coefficient
• Slope
• Elasticity

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Results primary pupil teacher ratios
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Inequalities in outcomes

• Guiding questions
• To what extent do countries vary in performance?
• Is there a relationship between outcomes and SES?
• To what extent do schools vary in their outcomes?
• Is variation in performance related to
  differences between schools or within schools?
• See Willms 2006 for further research questions

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Learning divides
ten policy questions about the peformance and
equity of schools

• Countries participating in international
  assessments
• PISA, PIRLS, SACMEQ
• Horizontal equity and EEO
• Targets of equity
• - 4th or 8th grade students and their household
  SES
• Objects of equity
• Reading achievement
• Math achievement

Source Willms, 2004
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Family background and learning achievement
Source Ross, 2004 and Zhang, 2008
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What types of policy options help to improve
learning outcomes?
-- Universal -- Inclusive
-- Performance or SES-targeted -- Compensatory
policies
Source Willms, 2004
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Between and within-school differences
Performance-targeted, socio-economically
targeted, compensatory, inclusive
Universal, compensatory policies
Source Zhang, 2008
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Inequalities in enabling inputs teaching and
learning

• Countries participating in WEI SPS
• Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru,
  Uruguay, India (4 states), Malaysia, Philippines,
  Sri Lanka, Tunisia
• Horizontal equity and EEO
• Targets of equity
• - 4th grade students and their household
  characteristics
• Objects of equity
• Classroom resources
• Teachers professional satisfaction
• Perceived pupil motivation and behaviours
• Teaching practices

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WEI Survey of Primary Schools

• World Education Indicators project jointly with
  OECD, Statistics Canada and other experts (e.g.,
  Postlethwaite, Grisay)
• Sampling/translation quality standards
• Minimum of 400 schools and 1000 in Argentina and
  India, sample sizes of teachers ranged from 725
  (Uruguay) to 3250 (Malaysia)

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Who were survey respondents?

• 7,600 School heads (principals)
• 16,800 Grade 4 teachers for reading and/or
  mathematics
• National curriculum experts
• Intended to provide full coverage of all
  eligible schools, i.e., schools with grade 4
  students, in a national education system

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Types of indices constructed using school survey
data

• SCHOOL HEADS
• Pupils school engagement
• Pupils positive behaviour
• Teacher behavioural problems
• School heads instructional leadership
• School heads administrative support
• Social advantage of school intake
• Years of education of school staff
• School autonomy
• On teacher hiring and compensation
• On school budget
• On instructional content

• TEACHERS
• Social advantage classroom intake
• Teacher complaints
• Emphasis on academic achievement
• Professional satisfaction
• Perceived pupil motivation
• Perceived teacher status
• Staffs vision of school objectives
• Learning styles
• Active learning
• Group work
• Rote repetition
• Teaching practices
• Teacher-centred
• Strongly structured
• Pupil-centred
• Opportunity to learn

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Main findings

• Long way to go to equip all schools with decent
  quality and equal levels of resources
• Discrepancies between national standards and
  implementation
• School climate and classroom instruction varyied
  by socio-economic status of pupils and school type

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Defining index of school intake

• School heads reported
• Support for school attendance
• Parental education
• Relative income
• Teachers reported
• Support of school attendance
• Had eaten meal before coming to school
• Home literacy environment
• Child work and household tasks
• Social probelms

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Some countries still do not have sufficient basic
resources
Pct of pupils in schools that were reported to
have resource items
Source UIS, 2008
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Relationship between school resource items and
pupil intake
Correlation between school resources and Social
advantage of school intake
Source UIS, 2008
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Challenges for implementing targeting
policiesSelf-reported professional
satisfaction by teachers was higher in more
advantaged schools
Correlation coefficients between index of
Teacher-perceived professional satisfaction and
selected classroom characteristics
Correlations significant at p.0.5 appear in bold.
Source UIS, 2008
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and level of perceived motivation higher in
more advantaged classroom
Correlation coefficients between index of
Teacher-perceived pupil motivation and selected
classroom characteristics
Correlations significant at p.0.5 appear in bold.
Source UIS, 2008
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and perceived teacher behavioral problems more
serious in schools serving more
disadvantaged pupils
Correlation coefficients between index of
Principal-perceived teacher behavioral problems
and index of Social advantage of school intake
Correlations significant at p.0.5 appear in bold.
Source UIS, 2008
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and pupil-centred teaching practices more
common in more advantaged classes
Correlation coefficients between index of
Pupil-centred teaching practices and selected
classroom characteristics
Correlations significant at p.0.5 appear in bold.
Source UIS, 2008
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Conclusions drawing together the evidence

• Worthwhile to replicate these approaches
  provide useful perspectives on different aspects
  of inequality
• Interlink these different approaches analytical
  strength increases
• Need a better understanding of how context
  matters for policy interventions disadvantaged
  classrooms changes the way teachers teach and
  organise their classrooms and how they look at
  their pupils
• Study practices in schools that are positive
  deviants low SES schools that deliver good
  results through observation and qualitative
  approaches