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Bradley, S., Draca, M. & Green, C., (2004)
‘School performance in Australia – is there a role for quasi-markets?’
Australian Economic Review 37, no. 3, pp. 271-286
- Compares recent Australian education reforms with similar (though
wider-ranging) British reforms.
- Uses panel data from Queensland to investigate
whether raw (‘unadjusted’)
league tables perform well as signals of school performance, and whether
market forces are already at work in the Australian education system.
Key results:
- The authors find evidence that raw league tables take no account
of the influence of socio-economic factors and prior ability on school
performance, and therefore provide perverse incentives for schools
to e.g. accepting fewer disadvantaged students to boost their rankings.
- Regression analysis shows that school efficiency is affected by inter-school
competition, but rather weakly.
- The authors conclude that, if a system
of signals more effective than raw league tables could be created,
competition and a ‘quasi-market’ could
produce efficiency gains in the Australian education system.
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