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Governance,
management and performance in the Norwegian educational system
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Senior
researchers on the project
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Hans
Bonesrønning (SØF/NTNU), Lars-Erik Borge
(SØF/NTNU), Torberg
Falch (SØF/NTNU, project leader), Bjarne Strøm (SØF/NTNU),
Rune
Sørensen (BI)
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Junior
researchers on the project
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Kaja Høiseth Brugård (SØF),
Lars Monkerud (BI), Jon Marius Vaag Iversen (SØF), Päivi Lujala (SØF/NTNU),
Rune Reiling (SØF)
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Participating
institutions
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Center for economic
Research at NTNU (SØF), Department
of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Public
Governance, BI Norwegian School of Management (BI)
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International
collaborators
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Eric Bettinger, Stanford University, David
Figlio, Northwestern University, Mikael Lindahl, Uppsala University,
Sofia Sandgren Massih, Uppsala University, Hessel Oosterbeek, University
of Amsterdam, Ludger Wößmann, Ifo
Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
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Financing of
the project
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Norwegian Research Council
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Project period
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2010 ‒ 2014
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Aim of the project
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This project will analyze the relationship
between governance, management and performance in the Norwegian
educational system. The project covers both compulsory and upper
secondary education, with different governance challenges and performance
indicators. The aim of the project is to increase the knowledge and
research capacity on the relationship between governance, management and
performance in educational systems.
Background
International
tests reveal that Norwegian students in primary and lower secondary
education have average or below average performance in key subjects,
despite a resource use per student among the highest in the world.
Moreover, the variation in performance across socioeconomic groups is
large compared to most other countries. In upper secondary education
dropouts is a main concern. The share of students graduating within 5
years is less than 70 percent and with huge variation across counties.
It is well
established that family background (e.g. parental education and
occupation) is the most important determinant of individual student
performance. However, after family background are controlled for,
substantial differences across classes, across schools, and across school
owners remain.
The
international research focus is shifting from analyses of the impacts of
family background and school resources towards the roles of governance
and management of schools. In many countries the governance system has
been reformed by introducing accountability systems. School owners
(municipalities and counties) and individual schools are granted more
autonomy and are monitored on results rather than on resource use. It is
assumed that school owners and school principals will take more interest
in the functioning of the schools and apply new tools by which they can
affect student performance. Elements of the recent Norwegian reform, “Kunnskapsløftet”, can be interpreted as an
introduction of more accountability in the Norwegian system of
governance.
Completion
of upper secondary education is a prerequisite for enrolment into higher
education, and in Norway also for certification in a number of occupations.
Thus, dropout is likely to reduce individual future earnings and
employment opportunities. These effects are likely to be even more
important as relative demand for unskilled labour decreases. However,
empirical analyses of dropout hardly exist in Europe despite high dropout
is considered as a serious challenge for the educational systems all over
Europe.
Research questions
The project covers both
compulsory and upper secondary education, with different governance
challenges and performance indicators. The reform “Kunnskapsløftet”
introduces governing principles that reallocate the rights to
decision-making and thus redefine the roles of all actors in the sector.
Important governance tools in upper secondary education are the location
of schools and study tracks and the degree of school choice for the
students.
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To what extent do the school owners invest in
reform capacities of school leaders and teachers?
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Is reform implementation systematically
related to municipal characteristics?
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What are the consequences of “Kunnskapsløftet” for student performance?
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What are reasonable performance indicators for
Norwegian upper secondary education?
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What are important determinants of dropout
from upper secondary education?
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Are there a relationship between dropouts and
the (mis)match between study track composition
and local industry structure?
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What are the consequences of dropping out?
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How important is school management for student
achievement?
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Which leadership traits and behaviour foster a
productive learning environment?
Project plan
The
project will employ three PhD students and one post doc. who will
contribute on all parts of the project. It will be organized yearly
workshops with international collaborators as keynote speakers. In
addition, popular science conferences targeted towards policy-makers at
both the national and local level will be arranged as part of the
project.
Relevance to society
The latest decades
policy-makers have responded to low performance and high dropout rates by
implementing several changes and reforms in the Norwegian educational
system. This project will provide new systematic knowledge on the
function of the educational system, in particular related to governance
and management. While much research on management and organization in the
private sector exist, little quantitative research is available for the
public sector, and in particular for the educational sector.
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Working papers
Recent relevant
publications in international journals
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Hans Bonesrønning: “Are
Parental Effort Allocations Biased by Gender?” Education Economics,
forthcoming
Lars-Erik Borge and Per
Tovmo: “Myopic or constrained by balanced-budget-rules? The intertemporal spending behavior of Norwegian local
governments”, FinanzArchiv, forthcoming.
Torberg Falch and Sofia Sandgren Massih: “The
effect of education on cognitive ability”, Economic Inquiry, forthcoming.
Torberg
Falch, Kåre Johansen and Bjarne Strøm: “Teacher shortages and the
business cycle”, Labour Economics,
2009, vol.
16, p. 648-658.
More
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Recent relevant
reports in Norwegian
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