School autonomy and student achievement. An
international study with a focus on Italy
Angelo Paletta
Maria Magdalena Isac
Daniele Vidoni
The international evidence:
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•
•
•
•
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ICCS:
across countries, school autonomy does not have a significant effect on student
civic knowledge;
however, the effect depends to some extent on the country context - although in
most countries, the effects are nearly nil, in some contexts the parameters are
significantly higher than the average effect .
PISA:
mixed results indicating both positive and negative effects of school autonomy on
educational performance.
Differential effects might depend on the area of decision-making under
investigation (what is taught, how student are assessed, publicity of results) and
also on other characteristics of the educational system such as levels of
development and accountability.
“autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and lowperforming countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries”
(Hanushek E., Link S., Woessmann L. 2011)
-0.020
-0.010
-0.009
KOR
FIN
0.013
CZE
0.038
SVN
MLT
CHE
0.036
0.030
AUT
LTU
0.029
PRY
0.036
0.027
POL
0.060
SVK
0.026
0.023
RUS
ESP
0.022
NLD
0.017
0.012
IDN
NZL
0.010
SWE
0.016
0.008
CHL
0.040
TWN
0.008
0.005
0.000
COL
ENG
LUX
0.020
-0.005
-0.010
DNK
MEX
-0.012
EST
-0.015
-0.024
LVA
GTM
-0.025
-0.033
0.000
DOM
GRC
-0.036
-0.049
-0.040
THA
-0.060
-0.038
-0.080
ITA
HKG
-0.100
0.073
0.080
0.087
0.100
The international evidence on the effect of school autonomy on
civic knowledge
School Autonomy in Italy: some remarks
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Bassanini Law 1997: schools acquire legal personality
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Constitutional Reform of 2001: “The autonomous schools are the fundamental
brick of the school system” (art. 117.m)
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Autonomy is:
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•
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Curricular,
Organizational,
Financial (ability of diversifying sources of funding)
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All teachers (~800K) are civil servants employed by the Ministry of Education
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To the point, school principalship is not a career per se. Rather, it is the “last step of
the teaching career”
School autonomy in ICCS and PISA:
the dimensions and the space for action in Italy
taking decisions about curriculum planning,
•curriculum delivery,
•choice and use of textbooks,
•appointing teachers,
•dismissing teachers,
•establishing student assessment policies,
•determining the content of in-service professional
development programs for teachers,
•teacher appraisal,
•budget allocations within the school,
•extracurricular activities,
•student admittance policies and
•establishing teachers’ salaries
•
Research questions
• What is the relationship between school autonomy and multiple measures
of student achievement (civic knowledge, math and reading) in the Italian
context?
• To what extent is the size and direction of this relationship generalizable
across diverse outcome variables?
Method
• Data sources:
• The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
(ICCS) – 2009.
• The ICCS data for Italy matched with national data on student
achievement - INVALSI.
• Samples:
• International: 32 ICCS countries; 4423 schools; 116118
students.
• Italian: 153 schools; 2599 students.
Data and Methods
• Italian data - variables:
• Dependent variables – Civic knowledge, mathematics and
reading performance (cognitive tests - α > .80).
• Explanatory variable - School autonomy
• Control variables
Student characteristics: age, gender, SES, language spoken at
home
School context: location, size, teacher student ratio, average
SES.
Method of analysis for Italian data: multivariate multilevel
analysis (students within schools; regression model estimated
for the three dependent variables simultaneously)
Results of multivariate multilevel analysis to explain variation in
students Civic Knowledge, Italian language and Mathematics for Italy
Results of multivariate multilevel analysis to explain variation in
students Civic Knowledge, Italian language and Mathematics for Italy
M1
student control variables are related
to student achievement in all
domains.
Together, the control variables
explain:
• 17% of the total variance in civic
knowledge,
• 8% of the total variance in reading
(Italian language) and
• 2% of the total variance in the
mathematics achievement
Results of multivariate multilevel analysis to explain variation in
students Civic Knowledge, Italian language and Mathematics for Italy
M2
school autonomy shows:
•a statistically significant
negative relationship (β = 0.105, se = 0.033) with all
three outcomes
•the effect is common for all
achievement measures and
•explains nearly 1% of the
total variance in civics,
reading and mathematics
Results of multivariate multilevel analysis to explain variation in
students Civic Knowledge, Italian language and Mathematics for Italy
M3
•the negative effect cannot
be attributed to higher levels
of autonomy
•In fact:
•only the linear term shows a
statistical significant effect
(β = - 0.109, se = 0.035)
•the effect of the quadratic
term is almost nil (β =
0.006, se = 0.013)
Discussion and conclusions
For Italy:
higher levels of school autonomy are associated with lower student
achievement irrespective of the subject in which achievement was measured.
Possible leads for interpreting results:
Especially in elementary and middle school, the autonomy is only partial:
- Organizational and didactic
- NOT really financial: limited funding diversification, constraints to use of
(human) resources
Contradictions of a low school autonomy, but an even lower accountability: to
the point mostly bureaucratic accountability, little emphasis on learning
outcomes  scarcity of feedback processes to school improvement
Limitations and steps forward:
Findings should be further explored by looking at different effects of different
areas of decision-making as well as measures of school accountability.
Conclusions and future research
• Especially in the first phase of education, we would
be confronted with a mere partial view of all the
available decision-making levers
• Contradictions of a school autonomy "in midstream”
• Contradictions of a low school autonomy, but an even
lower accountability!
• Thank you for your attention