Standards are good for business:
Standardized Comparison and the Private Sector in Education
Types of Privatization (Stephen J. Ball)
Endogenous Privatization
 Borrowing private-sector
concepts for the public
sector:
 Choice
 Competition between
schools
 New managerialism
 Contract or outcomesbased education
 Performance
management
Exogenous Privatization
 Opening up public services
to private-sector
participation. That is,
contracting private
companies for
 designing
 managing
 delivering
 advising, evaluating,
etc.
public education.
2
The PPP-Type under Investigation:
Using Public Finance for Private Provision
Provision
Finance
Private
Public
Private
•
•
•
•
Private schools
Private universities
Home schooling
Private tutoring
• User fees
• Student loans
Public
•
•
•
•
Vouchers
Contract schools
Charter schools
Contracting out
• Public schoos
• Public universities
(H. A. Patrinos et al. 2012)
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Examples
 Quatar (Rand Corporation)
 Indonesia (International Standard Schools)
 Mongolia (Cambridge Education Services)
 Punjab Education Fund & Entrepreneurship in Education
 International Bacchalaureate
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“Good for Business”: The Rising Middle Class …
(Pearson CEO, John Fallon, February 25, 2013)
International Baccalaureate
2008-2013
Program
s
Oct 2008
Oct 2013
Increase
Primary
Years
430
1,092
154%
Middle
Years
545
1,022
88%
Diploma
Program
1,675
2,457
47%
Total
2,650
4,571
73%
 “Education Made in …”
 Britain: mode 1 of GATS
– UK education sale on
products and services:
£12.5 billion annually
 Britain: mode 2 of GATS
– consumption of UK
goods and services by
non-UK residents: £8.5
billion annually
 Germany: modes 1 & 2,
annual gain for the
economy: €9.4 billion
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The Legitimacy Problem or
the Selling Points
International Business
 Economy of Scale
 Cost-effectiveness of
the “product” (impact
evaluations)
 Replicability/transferabil
ity with minor local
adaptation
 Demand-driven:
international standards
National Government
 Impartiality (false dichotomy
between commercial versus
political interests)
 Cost-effectiveness
(“schools/centers/programs
of excellence”)
 Spill-over effects
 Alignment (in particular in
developing countries)
6
The Backward Reform Process
Pursued by International Business
Student
Tests
Key
Competencies/
Standards
Curriculum
Framework
Textbooks
Teacher
Education &
Development
7
The Economy of Scale
 Every person (student, teacher)
 In every subject
 At critical stages of the educational system
 “life-long”
 everywhere
8
A Critique of the Aid Architecture
 Ownership
 Alignment
 Harmonization
 Results
 Mutual Accountability
Source: Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005)
9
What Went Right -> Best Practices ->
International Standards
What Went Wrong
Approach
What-Went-Right
Approach
Learning from Mistakes
 Best Practices
 Good Practices
 Case Studies
10
Case Selection in
Comparative Policy Studies
Similar
Different
Systems
Outcomes
Similar
Different
SS-SO
Similar Systems with
Similar Outomes
SS-DO
Similar Systems with
Different Outcomes
DS-SO
Different Systems with
Similar Outcomes
DS-DO
Different Systems
with Different
Outcomes
11
Case Selection:
Examples
Similar
Different
Systems
Outcomes
Similar
Different
SS-SO
IRRELEVANT
SS-DO
Transatlantic
Transfer
DS-SO
“… even in
Mongolia”
DS-DO
What Ivan
Knows that
Johnny Doesn’t
12
Case Selection:
Uses/Abuses
Similar
Different
Systems
Outcomes
Similar
Different
SS-SO
IRRELEVANT
SS-DO
WHAT-WENTRIGHT
DS-DO
CONTRASTIVE
ANALYSES
DS-SO
GLOBALIZATION
STUDIES
13
Case Selection in
the What-Went-Right Approach
Outcomes
Similar
Systems
Different
SS-DO
POLICY
LEARNING
14
The Non-Sensical:
Manipulating the Case to Fit the Solution
Which global solutions for
the local problems?
Which local problems for
the global solutions?
Frank-Olaf Radtke (2008:
footnote 14)
“Benchmarks or “best
practices” provide
solutions […], but which
problems are they
supposed to resolve?
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Policy Borrowing and Lending Research
 The study of traveling reforms: what is exported (and
how) and what does not get exported
 Borrowing from elsewhere as political “coalition-builder”
 Educational import as a programmatic conditionality for
loans and grants from international agencies
(“economics of borrowing”)
 Who loses, who wins from importing international
standards, reform packages, or international “products”
16
Contact Information
Gita Steiner-Khamsi
Teachers College,
Columbia University
in the City of New York
gs174@columbia.edu
(Issyk Kul Oblast, Kyrgyzstan, 2006)
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