School‐based decision‐making in low‐and middle‐income countries
Citation: Carr‐Hill R, Rolleston C, Schendel R. The effects of school‐based decision‐making on educational outcomes in low‐and middle‐income contexts: a systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews 2016; 12(1): 1-169
What is this: The COVID-19 pandemic is placing a strain on schools. Existing research on decentralising some aspects of decision making to schools may provide information to help those trying to cope with this.
In this Campbell systematic review, the authors searched for studies of the effects on educational outcomes of changing decision‐making authority from a higher level of decision‐making authority to the level of the school. The authors searched for studies that collected data after 1990 and did their search up to January 2015. They included 26 impact studies of 17 interventions, as well as 9 studies of barriers and enablers.
What was found: Decentralising decision‐making to schools had positive effects in reducing repetition and dropouts, and increasing test scores in middle‐income countries.
There were fewer and smaller benefits in low‐income countries or disadvantaged communities, particularly if parents and community members have low levels of education and low status relative to school personnel.