School-based management, school decision-making and education outcomes in Indonesian primary schools

This paper examines the key aspects of the practices of school-based management in Indonesia, and its effect on education quality. Using a conceptual framework of an accountability system of public service delivery, the paper explores the relations among Indonesian parents, school committees, schools, and government education supervisory bodies from three tenets: participation and voice; autonomy; and accountability. Using the data from a nationally representative survey of about 400 public primary schools in Indonesia, the paper finds that the level of parental participation and voice in school management is extremely low in Indonesia. While the role of school committees is still limited to community relations, school facilities, and other administrative areas of school management, school principals, together with teachers, are much more empowered to assert professional control of the schools. The accountability system has remained weak in Indonesia's school system, which is reflected by inadequate information flow to parents, as well as seemingly low parental awareness of the need to hold schools accountable. The accountability arrangement of the Indonesian school system currently puts more emphasis on top-down supervision and monitoring by government supervisory bodies. The findings show that although the scope of school-based management in Indonesia is limited, it has begun to help schools make the right decisions on allocation of resources and hiring additional (non-civil servant) teachers, and to create an enabling environment of learning, including increasing teacher attendance rates. These aspects are found to have significantly positive effects on student learning outcomes.Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Disability

Vocational Schooling, Labor Market Outcomes, and College Entry

This paper examines the differentiated outcomes of vocational and general secondary academic education, particularly in terms of employment opportunities, labor market earnings, and access to tertiary education in Indonesia. With data from a panel of two waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey in 1997 and 2000, the paper tracks a cohort of high school students in 1997 to examine their schooling and employment status in 2000. The findings demonstrate that: (1) attendance at vocational secondary schools results in neither market advantage nor disadvantage in terms of employment opportunities and/or earnings premium; (2) attendance at vocational schools leads to significantly lower academic achievement as measured by national test scores; and (3) There is no stigma attached to attendance at vocational schools that results in a disadvantage in access to tertiary education; rather, it is the lower academic achievement associated with attendance at vocational school that lowers the likelihood of entering college. The empirical approach of this paper addresses two limitations of the existing literature in this area. First, it takes into account the observation censoring issue due to college entry when evaluating labor market outcomes of secondary school graduates. Second, using an instrumental variable approach, the paper also treats endogeneity of household choice of vocational versus academic track of secondary education, teasing out the net effect of secondary school choice on labor market and schooling outcomes.academic achievement; academic attainment; academic content; academic education; academic schools; access to higher education; access to tertiary education; catholic schools; classroom; classroom time

What Organizational Changes Have Companies Experienced upon Eliminating Ratings within their Performance Management System?

[Excerpt] Over the past decade, organizations have begun to move away from traditional performance management processes (annual reviews, assigned performance ratings, a link to compensation) to remove “performance ratings” based on the perception that traditional PM is not working. As of 2015, more than 55 companies have removed performance ratings. Among those are some high-profile companies such as GE, Microsoft, Accenture, etc. (see Appendix A). According to a study of 244 companies in 2016, almost all companies in the study use ongoing feedback, 52% of companies have adopted ratingless reviews, and 34% of companies use ratingless reviews and ongoing feedback. 80% of participating organizations say that managers make decisions how to allocate rewards without ratings while staying within budget constraints. The perceived impact of these new performance practices is high: 90% of companies that have redesigned performance management see direct improvements in engagement, 96% say processes are more simple, and 83% say they see the quality of conversations between employees and managers increasing. It is noteworthy that the positive impact may not all be attributed to the removal of performance ratings