Public Participation, Teacher Accountability, and School Outcomes:Findings from Baseline Surveys in Three Indian States

This paper presents findings from baseline surveys on student learning achievement, teacher effort and community participation in three Indian states, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Results indicate low teacher attendance and poor student learning. Parents and school committees are neither aware of their oversight roles nor participating in school management. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in outcomes across states. Karnataka has better student and teacher outcomes as well as higher levels of community awareness and participation than the other two states. We find substantial variation in teacher effort within schools, but most observable teacher characteristics are not associated with teacher effort. One reason for low teacher effort may be lack of accountability. Regression analysis suggests low rates of teacher attendance are only part of the problem of low student achievement. The gains in test scores associated with higher rates of attendance and engagement in teaching are small in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, suggesting teachers themselves may not be effective. Ineffective teaching may result from lack of accountability as well as poor professional development of teachers. Further research is needed to examine not only issues of accountability but also professional development of teachers.Academic Achievement; annual grants; average class size; basic competencies; basic education; basic services; blackboards; call; civil service; civil service teachers; class size; class sizes

Community Participation in Public Schools: The Impact of Information Campaigns in Three Indian States

This study evaluates the impact of a community-based information campaign on school performance from a cluster randomized control trial. The campaign consisted of eight to nine public meetings in each of 340 treatment villages across three Indian states to disseminate information to the community about its state mandated roles and responsibilities in school management. The findings from the first follow-up 2-4 months after the campaign show that providing information through a structured campaign to communities had a positive impact in all three states. In two states there was a significant and positive impact on reading (14-27 percent) in one of the three grades tested; in the third state there was a significant impact on writing in one grade (15 percent) and on mathematics in the other grade tested (27 percent). The intervention is associated with improvement in teacher effort in two states. Some improvements occurred in the delivery of certain benefits entitled to students (stipend, uniform, and mid day meal) and in process variables such as community participation in each of the three states. Follow-up research needs to examine whether there is a systematic increase in learning when the impact is measured over a longer time period and whether a campaign sustained over a longer time is able to generate greater impact on school outcomes.annual grants; attendance requirements; average treatment effect; basic education; blackboards; call; civil service; civil service teachers; classroom; Community Participation; competencies

Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India

Performance pay for teachers is frequently suggested as a way of improving education outcomes in schools, but the theoretical predictions regarding its effectiveness are ambiguous and the empirical evidence to date is limited and mixed. We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher incentive program implemented across a large representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 3% of annual pay). At the end of two years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.28 and 0.16 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests, suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives, suggesting positive spillovers. Group and individual incentive schools performed equally well in the first year of the program, but the individual incentive schools outperformed in the second year. Incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly-chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value.

School inputs, household substitution, and test scores

Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for the fact that households will respond to changes in school inputs. This paper presents a dynamic household optimization model relating test scores to school and household inputs, and tests its predictions in two very different low-income country settings -- Zambia and India. The authors measure household spending changes and student test score gains in response to unanticipated as well as anticipated changes in school funding. Consistent with the optimization model, they find in both settings that households offset anticipated grants more than unanticipated grants. They also find that unanticipated school grants lead to significant improvements in student test scores but anticipated grants have no impact on test scores. The results suggest that naïve estimates of public education spending on learning outcomes that do not account for optimal household responses are likely to be considerably biased if used to estimate parameters of an education production function.Tertiary Education,Education For All,Access to Finance,Teaching and Learning,Disability

School Inputs, Household Substitution, and Test Scores

Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for the fact that households will respond to changes in school inputs. We present a dynamic household optimization model relating test scores to school and household inputs, and test its predictions in two very different low-income country settings – Zambia and India. We measure household spending changes and student test score gains in response to unanticipated as well as anticipated changes in school funding. Consistent with the optimization model, we find in both settings that households offset anticipated grants more than unanticipated grants. We also find that unanticipated school grants lead to significant improvements in student test scores but anticipated grants have no impact on test scores. Our results suggest that naïve estimates of public education spending on learning outcomes that do not account for optimal household responses are likely to be considerably biased if used to estimate parameters of an education production function.

Adaptive stiffness in lattice metastructures through tensile-buckling inspired topology morphing

This paper explores the use of simultaneous tensile buckling of unit cells to induce a transformation in lattice topology. Under tension, unit cells undergo passive transformation from a rectangle-like to a triangle-/pentagon-like topology, with an associated change in the effective stiffness properties. This behaviour is investigated through finite element analysis and experiments, with analytical results providing insights into the observed behaviour. The analysis identifies (i) that the initial unit cell topology (rectangular) is dominated by membrane effects, (ii) the transformation phase is associated with negative stiffness, and (iii) once formed, the new topology (triangular/pentagonal) exhibits increased stiffness in both compression and tension. Finite element analysis confirms that the unit cell behaviour is also preserved in lattices. Under tension, the lattice undergoes a seven-fold increase in stiffness as it transitions from its initial to the new topology, with a regime of negative stiffness during this transformation accounting for approximately 82% of its total elastic deformation. This new approach to elastically tailor the nonlinear response of (meta-)materials/structures has the potential to contribute to the development of novel tensile energy absorbers

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES TEACHER PERFORMANCE PAY: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

ABSTRACT Performance pay for teachers is frequently suggested as a way of improving education outcomes in schools, but the theoretical predictions regarding its effectiveness are ambiguous and the empirical evidence to date is limited and mixed. We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher incentive program implemented across a large representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 3% of annual pay). At the end of two years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.28 and 0.16 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests, suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives, suggesting positive spillovers. Group and individual incentive schools performed equally well in the first year of the program, but the individual incentive schools outperformed in the second year. Incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly-chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value

Equity in Enrolment and Completion in Elementary Schooling in India: Evidence from Recent Household Surveys

This policy note analyses the evidence on the various equity issues relating to the participation and completion of elementary school education in India is based on the data collected by the national sample survey (NSS) and national family health surveys (NFHS), the latest year being looked at is 1998-99. this documentation of state-wise regional, community, gender and income inequities therefore do not take into account the progress made by states in reducing the inequities under the district primary education program (DPEP) program for the last 8 years. in fact, some of the issues which comes out of this study and needs attention is probably already addressed under some of the new programs already being undertaken by the MHRD, such as the sarva shiksha abhiyan (SSA). however, by filing these issues in a systematic manner, we hope to draw continued attention to the status of these issues in the programs

Community Participation in Public Schools: The Impact of Information Campaigns in Three Indian States

This study evaluates the impact of a community-based information campaign on school performance from a cluster randomized control trial. The campaign consisted of eight to nine public meetings in each of 340 treatment villages across three Indian states to disseminate information to the community about its state mandated roles and responsibilities in school management. The findings from the first follow-up 2-4 months after the campaign show that providing information through a structured campaign to communities had a positive impact in all three states. In two states there was a significant and positive impact on reading (14-27 percent) in one of the three grades tested; in the third state there was a significant impact on writing in one grade (15 percent) and on mathematics in the other grade tested (27 percent). The intervention is associated with improvement in teacher effort in two states. Some improvements occurred in the delivery of certain benefits entitled to students (stipend, uniform, and mid day meal) and in process variables such as community participation in each of the three states. Follow-up research needs to examine whether there is a systematic increase in learning when the impact is measured over a longer time period and whether a campaign sustained over a longer time is able to generate greater impact on school outcomes