quality in education

1. Measuring quality in education
Simon Ellis

2. Dimensions of quality
 Learning outcomes
 Education process
 Classroom conditions
 Teaching
 Inputs
 ICTs
 Textbooks and other material
 Governance
 Finance

3. Learning outcomes
 Measured against national standard
 Assessing individual skills in
comparison to other

individuals, schools, provinces, countries

4. Classroom processes
 Several existing well-defined
international indicators
 PTR, Survival, repetition

5. Larger classes show more
repetition
Cambodia
Macao SAR
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Philippines
Timor-Leste
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Iran
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Afghanistan
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
PTR in primary
%repeatersinprimary
CHINA

6. Smaller classes keep children
in school longer
Mongolia
Cambodia
Hong Kong SARIndonesia
Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Rep. of Korea
Singapore
Timor-Leste
Bhutan
Sri Lanka
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
40 60 80 100 120
Survival rate to the final grade of primary
PTRinprimary
CHINA

7. Larger classes tend to have more
over-age children
MongoliaBrunei Daruss.
Cambodia
Macao SAR
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Malaysia Rep. of Korea
Timor-Leste
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Maldives
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Iran
Philippines
Thailand
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
PTR in primary
%ofover-agestudentsinprimary

8. Survival rate to the last grade of primary and
transition rate to secondary, most recent year
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Cambodia
Nepal
LaoPDR
India
Philippines
Indonesia
Bhutan
VietNam
Malaysia
Mongolia
SriLanka
Brunei
Rep.of
Maldives
China
Macao
Hong
Singapore
Timor-
Thailand
%
Survival rate to the last grade
Transition rate to secondary

9. Pupils-teacher ratio, primary,
1990,2000 and most recent year
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Cambodia
Nepal
Philippines
Pakistan
Myanmar
Mongolia
Rep.ofKorea
Afghanistan
LaoPDR
VietNam
SriLanka
Iran
Indonesia
HongKongSAR
Japan
Thailand
Malaysia
BruneiDaruss.
PTRinprimary
1990 2000 Most recent year

10. Percentage of repeaters in primary,
2000 and most recent year
0
5
10
15
20
25
Rep.ofKorea
BruneiDaruss.
Myanmar
Mongolia
HongKongSAR
SriLanka
Philippines
VietNam
Thailand
India
Iran
Indonesia
MacaoSAR
Bhutan
LaoPDR
Cambodia
Nepal
%ofrepeatersinprimary
2000 Most recent year

11. Class sizes falling faster than
repetition rates
Bhutan
Thailand
Macao SAR
Cambodia
Philippines
Nepal
Lao PDR
Indonesia
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
PTR in primary
%ofrepeatersinprimary
2010 1990

12. School life expectancy (primary and secondary,
ISCED1-3), 1990, 2000 and most recent year
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Afghanistan
Myanmar
Cambodia
LaoPDR
India
Thailand
Mongolia
China
Iran
Philippines
Malaysia
Macao
SAR
Indonesia
Japan
HongKong
SAR
Rep.of
Korea
Brunei
Daruss.
Schoollifeexpectancy(inyear)
1990 2000 Most recent year

13. Teaching
 Processes – usually documented by
qualitative observation and recording

Eg amount of teacher attention given to each pupil
 Proxy indicators
 Teachers trained in appropriate pedagogical
techniques
 (average) years of experience of teachers
 % of teachers trained to national standards
[current international education indicator]

14. TEACHERS
Mean values of indices of learning
approaches

15. Inputs

16. FINANCE
Salaries as a percentage of total public education
expenditure (ISCED 1-4, most recent year)
32.8
54.8
58.4
62.8
76.0
79.3 79.4 79.7
83.1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
LaoPDR
Timor-Leste
Bangladesh
Rep.of
Korea
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Japan
India
%ofeducationalexpenditureonsalaries

17. TEXTBOOKS
Percentage of Grade 4 pupils who shared
textbooks for reading/language instruction

18. Percentage of pupils who were able to borrow
and take textbooks home

19. ICTs
 Every country has a ‘pilot’ impact study
 Few (no?) countries have nationwide impact studies
 Major determinants of school achievement are
 Intelligence IQ
 Education of parents
 Mixed results of ICT impact studies.
 Computers have more impact on education when in
the home than when at school
 BUT ICT skills are a basic requirement for all roles in
society

20. Conclusions
 Many different approaches to measuring quality
 Statistics only part of story, also requires qualitative
observation
 Classroom processes very important but difficult to
measure
 Some standard indicators; PTR, survival, repetition
rates are useful
 Most important are learning outcomes as the ultimate
aim of schooling
 National and international assessment needed
 In assessing learning outcomes inputs and processes need
to be taken into account