Measuring the efficiency of Italian secondary schools

Details

Supervisors

Hindriks, Jean

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

The thesis aims to assess the efficiency of Italian high schools through the stu- dents’ educational achievements, using micro-data from the INVALSI database. The empirical strategy involves a two-stage procedure. In the first, the efficiency scores of a sample of Italian high schools are estimated to detect efficiency in the educational process. Then, in the second phase, a Tobit regression of the efficiency scores on a set of covariates is conducted to investigate associations with efficiency. School efficiency scores will be measured using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. This non-parametric technique considers each school as a decision-making unit (DMU) that uses inputs to produce outputs. In this thesis, 3019 schools are considered for the analysis in 2022, while only 771 schools are included in the study in 2019. The inputs involved in the educational pro- duction process are the number of study hours and early grades in Italian and Mathematics. By early grades, I refer to the marks in Italian and Mathematics that students obtain as assessments after the first semester of the academic year. By contrast, I consider as outputs later grades. They are the scores that students get on INVALSI standardized tests in Italian and Mathematics. In the second stage of the analysis, the environmental variables involved are students’ characteristics and school organization. The study is conducted for two academic years: 2021-2022 and 2018-2019. A comparison between the two surveys reveals that the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced Italian school performance by about 50 percent.