Philippines Education Note JUNE 2016 | NO. 8 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Introduction After a long period of stagnation, public spending on education in the Philippines has increased significantly. Between 2005 and 2015, education spending more than doubled in real terms, with much of it being devoted to increasing the number of teachers and improving school infrastructure. As a result, student-teacher and student-classroom ratios have improved significantly. For example, the average student-teacher ratio in high schools fell from 40:1 in 2005 to 27:1 in 2014. Despite increased spending and improvements in key input ratios, improvements in learning outcomes have been relatively modest so far. Studies have shown this to be the case in many other countries as well. Clearly spending is only one of a host of factors that can affect the ability of schools to improve the academic outcomes of their students. Some of these factors fall within the control of the education system and schools such as the provision and quality of education inputs and the effectiveness of school-based management. Others such as the characteristics of students and their households are beyond the control of schools, but all of these factors affect the efficiency of resource use and education outcomes. This note is part of a series outlining analysis and results from the Philippines Public Expenditure This note attempts to identify the factors associated Tracking and Quantitative Service Delivery Study with differences in overall school performance and conducted by the Department of Education and efficiency. It draws on data from the Philippines Public the World Bank with the support of the Australian Education Expenditure Tracking and Quantitative Government through the Australia-World Bank Service Delivery Study (PETS-QSDS), which tracked Philippines Development Trust Fund. public education spending and assessed the quality of WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH 1 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Box 1: The Philippines Public Education Expenditure Tracking and Quantitative Service Delivery Study The aim of the Philippines Public Education Expenditure and Quantitative Service Delivery Study has been to answer four main questions on the use of the public education budget: 1. Resource flow, management, and control. What factors prevent resources from reaching their intended destination in a timely and transparent manner? 2. Existence, use, and financing of inputs at the school level. Do schools have access to essential inputs and how effective are the systems that govern their use? 3. Equity. How do the resources available to schools and the systems that manage these resources differ among regions and socioeconomic groups? 4. School performance and resources. How and why does the performance of schools differ and what drives those differences? The study has tracked over 80 percent of the national government education budget (including teacher salaries and training, school maintenance and operating expenses, construction, and learning materials) as well as local government spending on basic education. In order to assess how funds flow and how they are used at the school level, the study team conducted a nationally representative survey of government institutions and public schools in the last quarter of 2014. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was excluded from the study because government funds for this region are managed separately and flow to schools through a different mechanism. In addition, integrated schools (which offer both elementary and high school education) and schools that did not have final grade elementary and high school students were excluded from the sample, primarily because the study aimed to measure outcomes at the end of elementary school and at the end of high school. The sample for the survey included all regional offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), 51 division and 113 district offices of DepEd, 54 district engineering offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways, 74 provincial and city/municipality local governments, 249 public elementary schools, and 200 public high schools. At the school level, interviewers administered a questionnaire to each parent-teacher association, assessed the competencies of approximately 1,500 teachers, and interviewed 2,200 student households. The data collected were used to explore the systems that govern the use of public funds and to assess how the availability of resources differed among schools. The study team combined information on the flow of funds to schools with information on school characteristics and quality to evaluate how financing and governance affected school performance. the systems governing the use of these funds (Box 1). The efficiently schools can convert their financial, physical, and note also draws on the findings from other policy notes in human resources into improved education outcomes. this series to identify the key factors that determine the links However, given the limitations of using cross-sectional data, between public spending and education outcomes. the findings are not strong, and factors associated with good performance tend to vary a lot according to the level of The note found that school performance is related to several education and the performance measures that were being of these key factors including school governance and analyzed. While more rigorous research is needed, the policy school infrastructure. It also found that student and school note provides tentative evidence that the factors often characteristics, school-level accountability mechanisms, associated with better performance are not functioning and some teacher characteristics are associated with how effectively in the Philippines. 2 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH Approach to Assessing dance registers. The specific measure used in this note was av- erage attendance in all grades on four specific dates in the last School Performance six months of 2014.3 The school averages showed that student attendance is generally high in the Philippines with relatively This policy note used the average National Achievement Test little variation between rural and urban schools (Table 1). (NAT) score for each school as a measure of its performance.1 Specifically, it used a school aggregate of the different In order to develop a framework for understanding the subject tests that individual students took in 2014 at the end factors affecting the performance of individual schools, the of elementary school (Grade 6) and high school (Grade 10). study team consulted several international studies.4 These The NAT scores of municipal schools tended to be higher studies broadly looked at three main categories of factors than those of schools in urban areas (Table 1). For example, associated with school effectiveness and good education the average NAT score for Grade 6 students in municipalities outcomes (Figure 1). was 75 percent compared with 66 percent in highly urbanized cities.2 1. Household and Student Characteristics. The early childhood care received by children, their development history, Student attendance was used as an additional measure of and the investments made by their household in their school performance. The data on attendance were collected education influence the performance of the schools that as part of the PETS-QSDS survey directly from student atten- they attend. The level and type of financial and academic Table 1: School National Achievement Test Results and Student Attendance Rates, 2014 Elementary Schools High Schools High High Urbanized Other All Urbanized Other All Cities Cities Municipalities schools Cities Cities Municipalities schools National achievement score (%) Average (mean) 66.2 70.6 75.4 74.3 54.5 57.7 57.6 57.3 Variation (standard 11.9 13.8 13.6 13.7 7.7 8.4 12.6 11.7 deviation) Minimum 38.8 36.7 32.1 32.1 41.5 41.7 34.8 34.8 Maximum 83.4 91.5 94.2 94.2 72.6 80.8 85.9 85.9 Student Attendance (%) Average (mean) 87.5 93.8 88.4 89.0 88.5 92.9 89.3 89.8 Variation (standard 14.1 4.4 12.7 12.2 9.4 3.3 10.3 9.6 deviation) Minimum 19.7 78.1 34.8 19.7 39.6 81.4 56.6 39.6 Maximum 99.0 100.0 99.6 100.0 99.6 99.4 99.6 99.6 Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school level. NAT scores of PETS-QSDS sampled schools – National Education Testing and Research Center of DepEd. Notes: Attendance rates were calculated using the average of student attendance on four specific days in the second half of 2014. NAT scores were calculated as the averages of all subjects for Grade 6 (elementary) and Grade 10 (high school) students in PETS-QSDS sampled schools who took the national examination in 2014. PHILIPPINES EDUCATION NOTE 3 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Figure 1: A Framework for Understanding School Performance Supporting School School Inputs Factors Performance • Parent and • School • Average school community support characteristics results on the National • Education system • School climate Achievement Test (NAT) support • Average student • Enabling conditions • Material support • Teaching and attendance rates learning process Household and Student Characteristics support that children receive outside of school depends This note explores the association between these important crucially on the socioeconomic status of their parents. explanatory factors and school performance in a number of ways. First, the note compares differences in these factors 2. School Factors. How the school itself is organized to between high-performing and low-performing schools. provide learning opportunities for its students critically Schools with scores in the top 20 percent on the NAT were affects their academic achievement. This includes the classified as high performers whereas schools with scores motivation, attitudes, and competency of teachers, in the bottom 20 percent were classified as low performers. the quality of the teaching and learning process, the A similar definition was used to rank school performance in amount of learning time that the school provides, and terms of student attendance rates. Second, the note explores the systems used for student assessment. The quality of the extent to which the factors in Table 2 explain differences school leadership is another important school-level factor in efficiency.5 Finally, it looks directly at the relationship that affects the school’s performance. between the explanatory factors and school performance 3. Supporting Inputs. In order for schools to perform well, using a multivariate regression approach.6 they need the appropriate inputs and resources to operate effectively. This includes sufficient classrooms While this exercise highlighted some important associations, of good quality to teach children in groups that are not the approach had a number of limitations. Given the cross- too large and the availability of other education inputs sectional nature of the data and the lack of any strategy for such as textbooks and discretionary funds to support addressing selection bias, it was not possible to establish school improvement plans. They also need support causality between the explanatory factors and the selected from parents, the community, and, in the case of the performance measures. School performance is also not Philippines, local school boards (LSBs). Schools in the only determined by the current status of household Philippines also depend on the DepEd division and characteristics, school factors, and supporting inputs but also district offices for support on administration, financing by how those factors have evolved over time. It is unlikely and teaching. that the current state of the education system is a good The PETS-QSDS study team compiled a large number of vari- reflection of its past, given the large amounts of money that ables from the PETS-QSDS survey data for each of the catego- have recently been invested. The lack of any information ries in the framework. They then reduced this list to a smaller on the status of key indicators in earlier years will affect the group that they judged to be the best measures of each overall results. Also, the analysis focused on performance particular factor and that had been identified as important in at the school level, which did not take into account any the other policy notes in the PETS-QSDS series (Table 2). possible variations between different classes and teachers 4 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH Table 2: Characteristics Used to Measure the Key Aspects of the Performance Framework Household Characteristics School Factors Supporting Inputs Average per capita Material support: Revenue per student School characteristics: the school’s location, household consumption by source, MOOE funds received per enrollment rates, school feeding program, student, textbooks per student, adequacy the principal’s years of experience, time spent of classrooms, days of teacher training, by the principal in the classroom observing infrastructure and condition of classrooms. classes, the school’s SBM self-assessment level, whether the principal develops a school Parent and community support: Frequency plan for professional development. of meetings of the school governing council and the PTA, parental participation in school Capable teaching force: teacher decision-making, transparency board competency test scores, teacher attendance, available in a public space. teacher qualifications. Effective support from education system: Teacher learning process: the percentage frequency of supervision visits from the of parents who receive a report card for their DepEd Division office. child’s performance, proportion of students that report doing homework. within the schools. These issues were compounded by the and were rarely statistically significant. For example, annual small sample of teachers and households for each school per capita household consumption was approximately that was used in the study, which may have introduced PHP 16,300 for students in those elementary schools some measurement error. In addition, while the PETS-QSDS ranked in the top 20 percent for student attendance survey collected information on many important areas compared with PHP 14,700 for students in schools ranked related to school performance, there were some important in the bottom 20 percent. Schools that had better average gaps. For example, very little information was available on NAT scores also tended to include students who were the amount of real learning time available in schools or slightly wealthier than average, but again the differences on the quality of classroom teaching. This may have led were relatively small and not statistically significant. to biased estimates of the importance of the measured factors where they were correlated with omitted variables. School Factors It is important to keep these limitations in mind when interpreting the results presented in this note. It is clear from looking at differences between high- performing and low-performing schools that schools in urbanized areas tended to perform less well than those Characteristics of in municipalities. For example, a higher proportion of School Performance poorly performing elementary and high schools were located in highly urbanized cities than in municipalities, This section summarizes the study team’s findings on all of whereas good performing schools tended to be located the explanatory factors outlined in Table 2.7 more frequently in municipalities (Figure 2).8 Related to this finding, schools with higher enrollments also tended to have lower levels of student achievement than smaller Household Factors schools.9 For example, the high schools ranked in the top Students who attend higher performing schools tended to 20 percent in terms of NAT scores had an average of 446 be from slightly better-off families than those who attended students compared with an average of 833 students in low-performing schools, but these differences were not large schools in the bottom 20 percent. PHILIPPINES EDUCATION NOTE 5 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Lower Performing Schools Tend to be Bigger and Are More Likely to Be Located in Highly Urbanized Figure 2:  Cities Average student enrollment and location for schools ranked in the bottom and top 20 percent of NAT scores, 2014 Percentage of schools in HUCs Total school enrollment 15% 1,000 750 10% 500 5% 250 0% 0 Elementary School High School Elementary School High School Low performance (NAT) High performance (NAT) Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school-level data. More elementary schools with high student attendance Supporting Inputs rates had school feeding programs than schools with the lowest rates of student attendance. For example, 25 percent Simple comparisons between high-performing and of elementary schools in the bottom quintile of student low performing schools yielded some differences in attendance had a school feeding program compared with 71 terms of the quality of school infrastructure. Only 6 percent of schools in the top quintile of student attendance. percent of elementary schools in the highest quintile This suggests that school feeding programs may provide in terms of NAT scores operated multiple shifts families with an incentive to send their children to school. compared to 9 percent of schools in the bottom quintile. However, a similar pattern was not observed The quality of school leadership also appears to be for high schools, which may reflect the differences in associated with better school performance. Indicators shift patterns between elementary and high schools. associated with school principals and the processes for For example, it is more common in elementary schools which they are responsible tended to be better for high- to operate independent shifts, which may reduce the performing schools (Table 3). High-performing schools amount of instructional time received by each student. tended to have principals who spent more time in Subject-based teaching is implemented in high classrooms and who were more likely to have developed schools, so shifting is more likely to be associated with teacher professional development plans. However, these the organization of timetables and to have less impact differences were not generally statistically significant. on each student’s learning time. Simple comparisons of high-performing and low-performing The availability of key facilities such as electricity and schools did not reveal any statistically significant differences water supply and the quality of classrooms (their in the capacity of the teaching force.10 The PETS-QSDS study state of repair) also tended to be positively related tested a sample of Grade 6 and Grade 10 teachers in all to school performance. Thus, schools with better sampled schools. However, there was no clear or consistent facilities tended to have better attendance and pattern in the relationship between the performance NAT scores, although this was significant only for ranking of the sampled teachers in a school and the elementary schools and in the case of attendance for performance ranking of the school itself. high schools. 6 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH Table 3: School Performance and Leadership Indicators Elementary Schools High Schools Attendance NAT scores Attendance NAT scores Low High Low High Low High Low High perf. perf. perf. perf. perf. perf. perf. perf. Number of hours principal 2.6 7.1 2.9 4.8 3.7 5.5 3.8 5.8 observes classes Principal’s number of years 2.6 3.3 3.7 3.0 2.7 3.6 2.9 2.7 of experience School plan for teacher 54.0 97.3 61.3 84.5 53.5 67.8 72.3 82.5 professional development exists SBM self-assessment level 1.4 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.8 1.6 1.7 Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school level. Notes: Hours of observation are over a typical school week. School based management self-assessment is based on a three point scale (Level 1 = developing, Level 2 = maturing, and Level 3 = advanced). Student-teacher ratios also tended to be lower in schools offices provide schools with their full allocations for that had better NAT scores although the differences were maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) is a not very large. High schools that ranked in the top quintile good measure of the amount of funds over which schools of NAT scores had an average student-teacher ratio of have discretion to spend on their own improvement plans 24:1 compared with an average of 26:1 in schools in the and a good indicator of the support that division offices bottom quintile of NAT scores. In contrast, schools with provide to schools. If division offices do not fulfill their low student attendance tended to have lower student- obligation to download all of a school’s allocation of MOOE teacher ratios than schools with better student attendance. funds, then it may not be providing much other support. This may have been a function, in part, of differences in Simple comparisons did show that better performing attendance between rural and urban areas, which also schools were more likely to be located in divisions that had large differences in student-teacher ratios. School downloaded their full MOOE allocations (Figure 3). attendance tended to be better in municipal schools, which also tended to have lower student numbers and There did not appear to be a consistent pattern between lower student-teacher ratios. schools’ levels of revenue and their performance. As part of the framework outlined in the previous section, the team There is some evidence that better performing schools used a number of different measures of annual school had greater support from the local community and from revenue to explore differences in school performance. the education system generally. Participation rates in They found no consistent association between revenue parent-teacher associations (PTAs) were much higher in and performance. In some cases, schools with lower than better performing schools (Figure 3). A similar pattern average revenues per student had better than average was also found between school performance and the performance indicators. These results point to the weak frequency of its school governing council meetings. relationship between spending and school performance However, differences between high-performing and and the likelihood that other factors (such as how well low-performing schools in terms of SGC meetings were funds are managed at the school level) influence the rarely statistically significant. Whether DepEd division efficiency of school spending. PHILIPPINES EDUCATION NOTE 7 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Schools with Higher NAT Scores Have More Parental Participation and Receive More of their Funding Figure 3:  from DepEd Division Offices Average proportion of parents who are members of the PTA and percentage of schools that do not receive all of their MOOE funds from the DepEd division offices Elementary schools High schools 80% 80% 60% 60% 40% 40% 20% 20% 0% 0% Percentage of Division retains a Percentage of Division retains a parents with PTA proportion of parents with PTA proportion of membership MOOE membership MOOE Low performance (NAT) High performance (NAT) Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school-level data. Efficiency of School The team’s estimates of school efficiency suggest that education outcomes could be significantly improved Spending without the need for any additional funding. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), the team estimated efficiency The previous section showed that schools vary considerably scores for school performance (as measured by attendance in their ability to translate their revenues into positive and NAT scores) to measure the relative effectiveness of education outcomes. The PETS-QSDS study collected schools in transforming their annual per-student spending detailed information on all sources of school revenue from into better education outcomes.12 The results revealed a nationally representative sample of elementary and high considerable variation among schools in their ability schools.11 On the whole, the higher the annual level of to translate resources into better education outcomes. school funding, the better the school’s performance, but this The estimated efficiency scores can be interpreted as relationship was not very strong (Figure 4). the percentage increase in output that a school could achieve with its current resources. The estimates revealed Some schools appeared to use their resources more that school efficiency varied considerably and there is effectively than others to improve student learning considerable potential for improving education outcomes outcomes. In Figure 4, each panel is divided into quadrants if schools were able to use their resources more effectively that show where schools fell in relation to the average (Figure 5). For example, the average efficiency score achievement score and average annual school spending for elementary school NAT results was 77 percent. This per student. Schools in quadrant A were the most efficient suggests that Grade 6 NAT scores could be improved by as they spent less than the average school every year but around 23 percent if all schools were able to use their had better than average outcomes. The schools in quadrant resources as efficiently as the most efficient schools in the B were the least efficient, with levels of spending that were system (Figure 5). While not too much should be read into higher than average but with below average performance. the exact magnitude of these estimated improvements, this Levels of efficiency varied greatly between schools that had exercise does demonstrate the potential benefits that might similar levels of either performance or spending. accrue from more effective resource use. 8 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH There Are Large Differences in Performance Even Among Schools with Similar Levels of Funding Figure 4:  National achievement test scores and school annual revenue per student, 2013–14 Elementary schools High schools 100% 100% A A 90% 90% 80% 80% Grade 10 NAT scores Grade 6 NAT scores 70% 70% 60% 60% 50% 50% 40% 40% B B 30% 30% 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 School revenue per student (PHP) School revenue per student (PHP) Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school-level data. Note: The horizontal line in the figure represents the average school NAT score while the vertical line marks the average school revenue per student. Schools’ levels of efficiency are affected by some factors that scores and the explanatory factors in the framework outlined they can influence and some that they cannot, such as the in Figure 1.13 The results of this second stage analysis characteristics of the communities and households to which highlighted some of the same explanatory factors that were their students belong. The team used regression analysis to revealed in the comparison of high-performing and low- explore the associations between the estimated efficiency performing schools in the previous section. Increasing School Efficiency Can Improve Education Outcomes Figure 5:  Average estimated efficiency scores and standard deviations for school attendance and NAT results in elementary and high schools Elementary schools High schools 100% 100% 75% 75% 50% 50% 25% 25% 0% 0% NAT e ciency Attendance NAT e ciency Attendance score e ciency score score e ciency score Mean Standard deviation Source: PETS-QSDS national survey – school-level data. Note: The efficiency score shows the average efficiency of schools relative to the most efficient schools in the system. Efficiency scores were estimated using data envelopment analysis. School attendance and NAT scores were the output measures used, and the input measure was total annual school revenue per student. PHILIPPINES EDUCATION NOTE 9 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Schools in urban areas tended to be less efficient than rural There is some evidence that the availability of key schools in using their resources to deliver better NAT scores. school facilities and the condition of the existing stock For example, elementary schools located in cities were less of classrooms affected efficiency. For example, better efficient than schools in municipalities or in highly urbanized learning environments, measured by an index of cities. Larger schools, and particularly high schools, also classroom conditions such as the state of repair, were tended to be less efficient even after controlling for school positively associated with school efficiency. However, this location. This is likely to reflect the difficulties involved in the association was only statistically significant for elementary management and organization of larger schools. However, school NAT scores and high school attendance rates. the differences in efficiency between schools in different locations and of different sizes were not always statistically Factors associated with greater parental and community significant. participation tended to be related to better efficiency, but the results were rarely statistically significant. More While school leadership factors were associated with greater frequent PTA and SGC meetings and greater parental efficiency, the results were not always statistically significant. participation were associated with greater efficiency Similar to the high and low performance comparisons, in terms of NAT scores. However, only the frequency of schools with more experienced principals who spent SGC meetings in elementary schools was statistically more time observing teaching and who developed plans significant. The frequency of PTA meetings and the for teacher professional development tended to be more proportion of parents participating in these meetings efficient. However, these factors were rarely statistically were associated with lower efficiency as measured by significant on their own. attendance. It is unclear what was driving these results. Teacher characteristics also did not appear to be associated Schools located in divisions where the DepEd offices with levels of school efficiency. A number of factors such as provided schools with their full MOOE allocations tended qualifications and test results were included to understand to be more efficient. To the extent that this factor was a whether teacher characteristics were associated with proxy for more effective and transparent division-level efficiency.14 However, these factors did not appear to play management, it highlights the important role played much of a role in determining the efficiency of either by education system governance in increasing school elementary or high schools in terms of either NAT scores efficiency. or attendance. Meanwhile, better teacher performance on subject matter tests, while statistically significant for efficiency in high schools as measured by attendance, Determinants of School appeared to actually reduce school efficiency in some cases. Performance Differences in the sources of school funding did not appear to be strongly associated with school efficiency. It might The team tried taking a third approach to analyzing school have been expected that schools with more discretionary performance by extending the simple bivariate approach funding would be more efficient because they were able reported in Section 2 to some simple multivariate to use these funds to more effectively address their needs. regression analysis. School performance in terms of However, the results did not show this. Frequently, the attendance and NAT scores was regressed against the set relationship between the amount of discretionary funds and of explanatory variables outlined in Table 2. The results the source of those funds was not statistically significant. of this final approach were very similar to the efficiency And in some cases, the size of discretionary funds received score results and highlighted similar associations between by a school appeared to be associated with lower levels of explanatory factors, levels of school attendance, and school efficiency. national examination scores.15 10 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH Conclusion This policy note has shown that many schools in the development plans for their teaching force were often Philippines are not using the resources at their disposal in more efficient and had better performance indicators the most efficient way to improve their performance. The than schools where this did not happen. analysis has found that many schools could improve their performance quite substantially by using their existing There is also some tentative evidence to suggest that level of resources more effectively. schools within the jurisdiction of the better managed DepEd divisions tended to perform better themselves. Understanding the factors that underlie existing levels Division offices are obligated by DepEd regulations to of efficiency using the information from the PETS-QSDS transfer all MOOE funds to schools, and it can be assumed survey was more challenging. The cross-sectoral nature that those that do not do so are less well managed. The of the data and the relatively small sample sizes made evidence reported in this note has shown that schools it difficult to identify the main factors that could drive that fall within the jurisdiction of those divisions also improvements in efficiency. And while the study team tended to be inefficient and to perform poorly compared made considerable efforts to collect information on the to schools in better managed divisions. broadest possible set of explanatory factors, there were still significant gaps. In particular, the lack of any information It is surprising that teacher characteristics were not on the teaching and learning process within classrooms associated consistently with overall school performance. may have affected the validity of the results. The PETS-QSDS study included a detailed assessment of teacher’s subject knowledge, and the results were not Notwithstanding these limitations, the note does provide associated strongly with school performance. It is possible some tentative evidence that participation by parents that this was because only a small proportion of each and community members in school affairs can influence school’s teachers took the test or it may be that levels of the efficiency with which schools use their resources teacher competency are universally low in the Philippines and overall school performance. The frequency of SGC and do not vary significantly across schools. meetings had a positive and sometimes statistically significant association with school efficiency and Finally, the note’s findings suggest that larger schools performance in the multivariate analysis. However, factors in urban areas are inefficient and perform less well than associated with greater participation and support from smaller schools in municipalities. Other policy notes PTAs tended to be negatively related to efficiency in school based on the PETS-QSDS data have highlighted the fact outcomes. Further research is needed to understand that large schools in urban areas are under significant the factors underlying these results but strengthening amounts of stress. The results presented here tend the relationships between schools and their local to confirm that these schools are also less efficient. communities, particularly through the institutions (such as Schools in highly urbanized cities tended to have higher the SGCs) and processes (such as the school improvement than average levels of funding but lower than average plans) related to the implementation of school-based levels of performance. Given that the socioeconomic management could be beneficial. status of children in these schools did not appear to be significantly different from the status of those in The note has shown that school leadership may be a other public schools, this suggests that the inefficiency key explanatory factor for differences in performance stemmed from the challenges associated with managing among schools. Schools where the principals observed very large schools and the very intensive use of limited classroom teaching regularly and developed professional school infrastructure. PHILIPPINES EDUCATION NOTE 11 Understanding the Drivers of Public School Performance and Efficiency in the Philippines Endnotes 1 A detailed description of the methodology and the full 8 The proportion of highly urbanized schools in the poor results are available in World Bank (2016). “Understanding the performing quintile was much higher than the proportion of Drivers of School Efficiency/Performance in the Philippines.” highly urbanized schools in the population as a whole. Washington, D.C. 9 Differences were statistically significant at the 1 percent level. 2 Highly urbanized cities are cities with populations of more than 10 Differences in teacher attendance were also explored but no 200,000 and with average revenues of at least PHP 50 million in statistically significant differences were found between high and 1991 prices. Other cities are defined as cities that do not meet low performing schools. the criteria to be classified as highly urbanized. Municipalities are administrative units for all other areas in the Philippines. 11 A full description of the information collected and the approach that the PETS-QSDS study took to calculating total school 3 Other performance indicators such as a school’s dropout and revenue and expenditure is included in additional annexes and completion rate were also analyzed, but these school-reported tables accompanying the main PETS-QSDS report. rates did not seem to be very accurate. 12 Efficiency scores were estimated for each of the performance 4 See for example, Glewwe, P.W., E. A. Hanushek, S.D. Humpage, measures. An output-oriented approach that assumes variable and R. Ravina (2011). “School Resources and Educational returns to scale was used to estimate efficiency scores. Full details Outcomes in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature of the approach and results are available in World Bank (2016) from 1990 to 2010” NBER Working Paper No. 17554, National “Understanding the Drivers of School Efficiency/Performance in Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA and Heneveld, the Philippines.” Washington, D.C. W. and H. Craig (1996) “Schools Count: World Bank Project Designs and the Quality of African Primary Education.” 13 Efficiency scores cannot exceed 100 percent so a Tobit model World Bank, Washington, D.C. was used to estimate associations between efficiency scores and explanatory factors. 5 Data envelopment analysis was used to explore school efficiency. See, for example, Coelli, T. J., Rao, D. S. P., O’Donnell, C. J., and 14 Teacher attendance did not have a significant impact on Battese, G. E. (2005) An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity efficiency scores. In the final analysis teacher attendance was Analysis, Springer Science & Business Media, New York and dropped because it allowed more school observations to be Herrera, S. and G. Pang (2005) “Efficiency of Public Spending in used. Developing Countries: An Efficiency Frontier Approach” Policy 15 The full results are not presented here but are included in Research Working Paper. No. 3645, World Bank, Washington, D.C. additional annexes and tables accompanying the main 6 A hierarchical modelling (HLM) approach was used when PETS-QSDS report. appropriate to account for the grouping of schools in the PETS-QSDS study under DepEd division and regional offices. 7 Average elementary (high) school attendance for the bottom 20 percent of schools was 71 (75) percent and 98 (98) percent for the top performing 20 percent of schools. Average elementary (high) school national achievement test score for the bottom 20 percent of schools was 52 (42) percent and 90 (75) percent for the top performing 20 percent of schools. The full results are available in a set of additional tables accompanying the main PETS-QSDS report. 12 WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG/PH