School autonomy and accountability : Are they related to student performance?

Abstract

In countries where schools have greater autonomy over what is taught and how students are assessed, students tend to perform better. In countries where schools account for their results by posting achievement data publicly, schools that enjoy greater autonomy in resource allocation tend to show better student performance than those with less autonomy. In countries where there are no such accountability arrangements, schools with greater autonomy in resource allocation tend to perform worse.