The role of innovations in secondary school performance - Evidence from a conditional efficiency model

This paper studies the influence of educational innovations on school performance. We apply a tailored, fully nonparametric conditional efficiency model to study secondary school efficiency in the Netherlands. The application uses official school data and a self-collected questionnaire on recent innovations in schools. In the nonparametric model, it is assumed that schools aim to maximize educational attainments of students under a budget constraint. The results suggest that innovations are positively related to efficiency. We find that profiling, pedagogic, process and education chain innovations are significantly related to school efficiency, whereas innovations in the professionalization of teachers are insignificantly related to school efficiency. Furthermore, the number of locations per school and the number of schools per governing body are negatively and significantly related to school efficiency. School type and region significantly influence school efficiency, whereas share of disadvantaged students, degree of urbanization and student/teacher ratio do not have significant influence. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.