Personal and institutional
factors in the assessment of
European public policies.
The case of education
Clara Riba & Anna Cuxart
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Introduction


The challenges of education in the XXI
century
The quality of education: indicators



Objective: student’s attainment
Subjective: survey opinions
Indicator used: evaluation of the state
of the education (ESS 2002-03)
Objective
To answer the questions:



What is the citizen’s opinion about the
quality of the education in their countries?
What are the effects of the educative
policies in that opinion?
How the effects of these policies interact
with the individual characteristics?
Hypothesis
Individual perceptions about education:




Sex and age differences
Rural and urban differences
High educated citizens are more
demanding on education
Party identification effect
Hypothesis
Contextual effects. Better evaluations if:





High public spending on education
Decentralization of education
Comprehensive educational system
Good working conditions for teachers
High socioeconomic and cultural status
Method and data
Multilevel analysis:
Level 1: citizens



Level 2: countries
Individual data for 22 countries from ESS
Contextual data from OECD (incomplete)
Analysis for two different groups of 17
countries
The state of education by countries
95% Confidence Interval (means)
8,0
7,5
7,0
6,5
6,0
5,5
d
an
nl rk
Fi ma
en
D ium
lg
Be d
n
la d
Ire trliaan ic
se b l
Aituz p u
Sw Re y
ch wa
ze or ds
C N lan
r g
he ur
et o
N m b om
xe g d
Lu in ia
K
d en
te v
ni lo
U S
en
e d ry
Sw ga
un
H
ly
Ita n ce
a
Fr n d
la
Po in
a
Sp l y
e
r a an
Is m
er
G
e
e cl
reg a
Grtu
Po
3,5
center s cale 0-10
5,0
4,5
4,0
PISA results and ESS opinions
10
9
FI
8
DK
7
6
5
GR
4
PT
Subject
3
2
Maths
1
Science
0
Lenguage
400
450
Country mean
500
550
600
Models with interactions (first group of countries)
Model 1
Only level 1
variables
Fixed effects
constant
Satisfaction with the
Government
Female
Medium level of education
High level of education
Decentralization
Public spending
Interactions:
Decentra*Satisf_Gov
Public_sp*Satisf_Gov
Public_sp*Female
Public_sp*High level
educ
Model 2
Model 3
Decentralization Public spending
4,31
0,32
2.23
0.47
1.51
0.53
-0.05
-0,16
-0,35
-0.05
-0,15
-0,34
-0.41
-0,16
-0,73
0.64
0.52
-0.05
-0.04
0.06
0.07
Models with interactions (first group of countries)
Model 1
Model 2
Model 3
Only level 1 Decentralization Public spend
variables
Random effects
Level 2 (country)
constant
Satisfaction with the
Government
High level of education
Level 1 (individual)
sigma square
Intra-country-correlation
coefficient
-2*log (likelihood)
Degrees of freedom
p-value
0,758
0.924
0.005
0.82
0.005
0.014
3.965
3.922
3.916
122197
11
0.000
122166
11
0.000
0,160
122476
7
Results. Individual effects



Women are more critical than men
Educated citizens are more critical than
those with only primary education
Government satisfaction affects positively
the evaluations of education
Results. Contextual effects




Decentralization of education increases
satisfaction
Public expending on education affects
positively the evaluations of education
Comprehensive educational systems
increase satisfaction
Evaluations are better in countries with
high socioeconomic and cultural status
Results. Interactions effects


Decentralization and public expending
reduce the positive effect of
government satisfaction on the
evaluation of education
Public expending reduces the negative
effects of high education and sex on the
evaluation of education
Conclusions


Political decisions of governments and
socioeconomic and cultural level of
countries affect citizens’ perceptions about
the quality of education
There are interactions of decentralization
and public expending with education, sex
and government satisfaction that reduce
the effects of the individual variables