standards are good for business: standardized comparison and the private sector in education

Standards are good for business:

Standardized Comparison and the Private Sector in Education

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Types of Privatization (Stephen J. Ball)

Endogenous Privatization

Borrowing private-sector concepts for the public sector: Choice Competition between

schools New managerialism Contract or outcomes-

based education Performance

management

Exogenous Privatization

Opening up public services to private-sector participation. That is, contracting private companies for designing managing delivering advising, evaluating, etc.

public education.

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The PPP-Type under Investigation: Using Public Finance for Private Provision

Provision

Private Public

Finance

Private • Private schools• Private

universities• Home schooling• Private tutoring

• User fees• Student loans

Public • Vouchers• Contract

schools• Charter schools• Contracting out

• Public schoos• Public universities

(H. A. Patrinos et al. 2012)

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Examples

Quatar (Rand Corporation)

Indonesia (International Standard Schools)

Mongolia (Cambridge Education Services)

Punjab Education Fund & Entrepreneurship in Education

International Bacchalaureate

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“Good for Business”: The Rising Middle Class … (Pearson CEO, John Fallon, February 25, 2013)

International Baccalaureate2008-2013

Programs

Oct 2008

Oct 2013

Increase

Primary Years

430 1,092 154%

Middle Years

545 1,022 88%

Diploma Program

1,675 2,457 47%

Total 2,650 4,571 73%

“Education Made in …” Britain: mode 1 of GATS

– UK education sale on products and services: £12.5 billion annually

Britain: mode 2 of GATS – consumption of UK goods and services by non-UK residents: £8.5 billion annually

Germany: modes 1 & 2, annual gain for the economy: €9.4 billion

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The Legitimacy Problem or the Selling Points

International Business

Economy of Scale Cost-effectiveness of

the “product” (impact evaluations)

Replicability/transferability with minor local adaptation

Demand-driven: international standards

National Government

Impartiality (false dichotomy between commercial versus political interests)

Cost-effectiveness (“schools/centers/programs of excellence”)

Spill-over effects

Alignment (in particular in developing countries)

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The Backward Reform Process Pursued by International Business

Key Competencies/

Standards

Curriculum Framework

Teacher Education &

Development

Textbooks

Student Tests

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The Economy of Scale

Every person (student, teacher)

In every subject

At critical stages of the educational system

“life-long”

everywhere

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A Critique of the Aid Architecture

Ownership

Alignment

Harmonization

Results

Mutual Accountability

Source: Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005)

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What Went Right -> Best Practices -> International Standards

What Went Wrong Approach

Learning from Mistakes

What-Went-Right Approach

Best Practices

Good Practices

Case Studies

Introspection:Learning from the

Past (Mistakes)Extraspection:

Learning from Others, “international

standards”

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Case Selection inComparative Policy Studies

OutcomesSimilar Different

Systems

Similar

SS-SOSimilar Systems with

Similar Outomes

SS-DOSimilar Systems with Different

Outcomes

Different

DS-SODifferent Systems

with Similar Outcomes

DS-DODifferent Systems

with Different Outcomes

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Case Selection:Examples

OutcomesSimilar Different

Systems

Similar

SS-SOIRRELEVANT

SS-DOTransatlantic

Transfer

Different

DS-SO“… even in Mongolia”

DS-DOWhat Ivan Knows that

Johnny Doesn’t

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Case Selection:Uses/Abuses

OutcomesSimilar Different

Systems

Similar

SS-SOIRRELEVANT

SS-DOWHAT-WENT-

RIGHTDifferent

DS-SOGLOBALIZATION

STUDIES

DS-DOCONTRASTIVE

ANALYSES

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Case Selection inthe What-Went-Right Approach

OutcomesDifferent

Systems

Similar

SS-DOPOLICY

LEARNING

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The Non-Sensical: Manipulating the Case to Fit the Solution

Which global solutions for the local problems?

Which local problems for the global solutions?

Frank-Olaf Radtke (2008: footnote 14)

“Benchmarks or “best practices” provide solutions […], but which problems are they supposed to resolve?

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Policy Borrowing and Lending Research

The study of traveling reforms: what is exported (and how) and what does not get exported

Borrowing from elsewhere as political “coalition-builder”

Educational import as a programmatic conditionality for loans and grants from international agencies (“economics of borrowing”)

Who loses, who wins from importing international standards, reform packages, or international “products”

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Contact Information

Gita Steiner-Khamsi

Teachers College,

Columbia University

in the City of New York

gs174@columbia.edu

(Issyk Kul Oblast, Kyrgyzstan, 2006)