The Impact of Educational Quality on School Exit in Egypt

Comparative Education Review

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 2003, Pages

  Lloyd, Cynthia B ^b   El Tawila, Sahar ^c   Clark, Wesley H ^a   Mensch, Barbara S ^b  

^a World Health Association   (Switzerland)

^b Population Council

^c Cairo University   (Egypt)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1842686903     PISSN: 00104086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3542151     Document Type: Review

References (69)

1. For recent reviews, see Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Verspoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Eduardo Velez, Ernesto Schiefelbein, and Jorge Valenzuela, "Factors Affecting Achievement in Primary Education," Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Working Paper no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993); Ralph W. Harbison and Eric A. Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Bruce Fuller and Prema Clarke, "Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy," Review of Educational Research 64, no. 1 (1994): 119-58; Paul Glewwe, "School Quality, Student Achievement, and Fertility in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) pp. 105-37.
2. For recent reviews, see Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Verspoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Eduardo Velez, Ernesto Schiefelbein, and Jorge Valenzuela, "Factors Affecting Achievement in Primary Education," Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Working Paper no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993); Ralph W. Harbison and Eric A. Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Bruce Fuller and Prema Clarke, "Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy," Review of Educational Research 64, no. 1 (1994): 119-58; Paul Glewwe, "School Quality, Student Achievement, and Fertility in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) pp. 105-37.
3. For recent reviews, see Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Verspoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Eduardo Velez, Ernesto Schiefelbein, and Jorge Valenzuela, "Factors Affecting Achievement in Primary Education," Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Working Paper no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993); Ralph W. Harbison and Eric A. Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Bruce Fuller and Prema Clarke, "Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy," Review of Educational Research 64, no. 1 (1994): 119-58; Paul Glewwe, "School Quality, Student Achievement, and Fertility in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) pp. 105-37.
4. For recent reviews, see Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Verspoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Eduardo Velez, Ernesto Schiefelbein, and Jorge Valenzuela, "Factors Affecting Achievement in Primary Education," Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Working Paper no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993); Ralph W. Harbison and Eric A. Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Bruce Fuller and Prema Clarke, "Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy," Review of Educational Research 64, no. 1 (1994): 119-58; Paul Glewwe, "School Quality, Student Achievement, and Fertility in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) pp. 105-37.
5. For recent reviews, see Marlaine E. Lockheed and Adriaan M. Verspoor, Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); Eduardo Velez, Ernesto Schiefelbein, and Jorge Valenzuela, "Factors Affecting Achievement in Primary Education," Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Working Paper no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1993); Ralph W. Harbison and Eric A. Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor: Lessons from Rural Northeast Brazil (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Bruce Fuller and Prema Clarke, "Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy," Review of Educational Research 64, no. 1 (1994): 119-58; Paul Glewwe, "School Quality, Student Achievement, and Fertility in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999) pp. 105-37.
6. For example, see Jacob Mincer, Schooling, Experience, and Earnings (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974).
7. For example, see Arlene Leibowitz, "Home Investments in Children," Journal of Political Economy 82, no. 2, pt. 2 (1974): S111-S131.
8. For literature related to grades attained, see Mincer; George Psacharopoulos, "Time Trends of the Returns to Education: Cross-National Evidence," Economics of Education Review 8, no. 3 (1989): 225-31. For test scores, see Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett, and Frank Levy, "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," Review of Economics and Statistics 77, no. 2 (1995): 251-66; Jeff Grogger and Eric Eide, "Changes in College Skills and the Rise in the College Wage Premium," Journal of Human Resources 30, no. 2 (1995): 280-310.
9. For literature related to grades attained, see Mincer; George Psacharopoulos, "Time Trends of the Returns to Education: Cross-National Evidence," Economics of Education Review 8, no. 3 (1989): 225-31. For test scores, see Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett, and Frank Levy, "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," Review of Economics and Statistics 77, no. 2 (1995): 251-66; Jeff Grogger and Eric Eide, "Changes in College Skills and the Rise in the College Wage Premium," Journal of Human Resources 30, no. 2 (1995): 280-310.
10. For literature related to grades attained, see Mincer; George Psacharopoulos, "Time Trends of the Returns to Education: Cross-National Evidence," Economics of Education Review 8, no. 3 (1989): 225-31. For test scores, see Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett, and Frank Levy, "The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination," Review of Economics and Statistics 77, no. 2 (1995): 251-66; Jeff Grogger and Eric Eide, "Changes in College Skills and the Rise in the College Wage Premium," Journal of Human Resources 30, no. 2 (1995): 280-310.
11. Jere R. Behrman and Nancy Birdsall, "The Quality of Schooling; Quantity Alone Is Misleading," American Economic Review 73, no. 5 (1983): 928-46.
12. Julian R. Betts, "Is There a Link between School Inputs and Earnings? Fresh Scrutiny of an Old Literature," in Does Money Matter? The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement and Adult Success, ed. Gary Burtless (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1996), pp. 140-91.
13. Ibid, p. 183.
14. David Card and Alan B. Krueger, "Labor Market Effects of School Quality: Theory and Evidence," in Does Money Matter? The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement and Adult Success, ed. Gary Burtless (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1996), pp. 97-139, and "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States," Journal of Political Economy 100, no. 1 (1992): 1-40.
15. David Card and Alan B. Krueger, "Labor Market Effects of School Quality: Theory and Evidence," in Does Money Matter? The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement and Adult Success, ed. Gary Burtless (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1996), pp. 97-139, and "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States," Journal of Political Economy 100, no. 1 (1992): 1-40.
16. Card and Krueger, "Labor Market Effects of School Quality," p. 123.
17. Cynthia B. Lloyd and Barbara Mensch, "Implications of Formal Schooling for Girls' Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries," in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in the Developing World, ed. Caroline H. Bledsoe, John B. Casterline, Jennifer A. Johnson-Kuhn, and John G. Haaga (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999), pp. 80-104.
18. In a recent review article, "Schools and Skills in Developing Countries: Education Policies and Socioeconomic Outcomes, "Journal of Economic Literature 40 (June 2002): 436-82, Paul Glewwe has noted that one weakness of many empirical studies in developing countries on the impact of school characteristics on student skills is the endogeneity of years of schooling or grades in school.
19. See Paul Glewwe and Hanan Jacoby, "Student Achievement and Schooling Choice in Low Income Countries: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Human Resources 29, no. 3 (1994) : 843-64; and Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara S. Mensch, and Wesley H. Clark, "The Effects of Primary School Quality on School Dropout among Kenyan Girls and Boys," Comparative Education Review 44, no. 2 (2000): 113-47.
20. See Paul Glewwe and Hanan Jacoby, "Student Achievement and Schooling Choice in Low Income Countries: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Human Resources 29, no. 3 (1994) : 843-64; and Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara S. Mensch, and Wesley H. Clark, "The Effects of Primary School Quality on School Dropout among Kenyan Girls and Boys," Comparative Education Review 44, no. 2 (2000): 113-47.
21. For examples of studies relating to cognitive tests or examination scores, see Eric A. Hanushek and Victor Lavy, "School Quality, Achievement Bias, and Dropout Behavior in Egypt," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper no. 107 (World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1994); and Harbison and Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor. For an example using material correlates, such as resources per student, see T. Paul Schultz, "School Expenditures and Enrollments, 1960-1980," in Population Growth and Economic Development: Issues and Evidence, ed. D. Gale Johnson and Ronald D. Lee (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 413-78.
22. For examples of studies relating to cognitive tests or examination scores, see Eric A. Hanushek and Victor Lavy, "School Quality, Achievement Bias, and Dropout Behavior in Egypt," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper no. 107 (World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1994); and Harbison and Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor. For an example using material correlates, such as resources per student, see T. Paul Schultz, "School Expenditures and Enrollments, 1960-1980," in Population Growth and Economic Development: Issues and Evidence, ed. D. Gale Johnson and Ronald D. Lee (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 413-78.
23. For examples of studies relating to cognitive tests or examination scores, see Eric A. Hanushek and Victor Lavy, "School Quality, Achievement Bias, and Dropout Behavior in Egypt," Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper no. 107 (World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1994); and Harbison and Hanushek, Educational Performance of the Poor. For an example using material correlates, such as resources per student, see T. Paul Schultz, "School Expenditures and Enrollments, 1960-1980," in Population Growth and Economic Development: Issues and Evidence, ed. D. Gale Johnson and Ronald D. Lee (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 413-78.
24. Under Egypt's health insurance system, all schools are required to have a nurse or doctor in residence to provide both preventive and primary health care to students. See Sahar El Tawila, Hind Wassef, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara S. Mensch, and Zeinab Gamal, The School Environment in Egypt: A Situation Analysis of Public Preparatory Schools (Cairo: Population Council, 2000).
25. See Card and Krueger, "Labor Market Effects of School Quality," for discussion.
26. Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark.
27. World Bank, "Arab Republic of Egypt Study on Technical Education," Internal Report no. 7400-EGT to the World Bank, 1989.
28. Stephen P. Heyneman, "The Quality of Education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)," International Journal of Educational Development 17, no. 4 (1997): 449-66.
29. A governorate is a regional administrative unit. There are 26 governorates in Egypt.
30. M. E. Mahrouse, "Egypt: System of Education," in The International Encyclopedia of Education, ed. Torsten Husén and T. Neville Postlethwaite, 2d ed. (New York: Pergamon, 1994), 1:1939-47.
31. Students placed into technical secondary are further tracked by exam performance: a small group of the best-performing students among those who did not qualify for general secondary enter advanced 5-year technical schools and the rest enter the more typical 3-year technical schools. The best among this latter group are placed into industrial schools, the next group into agricultural schools, and the weakest group into commercial schools (World Bank).
32. World Bank, n. 17 above.
33. Heyneman.
34. Ragui Assaad, e-mail message to Cynthia B. Lloyd, 1999.
35. Indermit Gill and F. Fluitman, eds., "Skills and Change: A Synthesis of a Multi-Country Study of Vocational Education and Training Reform," Departmental Working Paper no. 19790 (World Bank and International Labor Organization, Washington, D.C., 1998).
36. All data for this paragraph are taken from the 1997 ASCE national survey of adolescents, which is fully described in the data section of the article.
37. Readers interested in data not shown in the article may contact the authors.
38. Further details on the survey can be found in Sahar El Tawila, Barbara Ibrahim, Omaima El-Gibaly, Fikrat El Sahn, Sunny Sallam, Susan M. Lee, Barbara Mensch, Hind Wassef, Sarah Bukhari, and Osman Galal, Transitions to Adulthood: A National Survey of Egyptian Adolescents (Cairo: Population Council, 1999).
39. Fifty of the 101 PSUs from the original sample were randomly selected and then ranked from high to low according to the percentage of girls aged 10-14 enrolled in school. As a first step, alternate PSUs in the ranking were sampled to determine the range of districts according to enrollment. This initial set of 25 PSUs yielded 60 schools. Because the budget permitted a larger sample, an additional 12 PSUs were selected from those remaining after a similar ranking procedure to yield a final sample of 75 preparatory schools.
40. Barbara S. Mensch and Cynthia B. Lloyd, "Gender Differences in the Schooling Experiences of Adolescents in Low-Income Countries: The Case of Kenya," Studies in Family Planning 29, no. 2 (1998): 167-84; Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark (n. 12 above).
41. Barbara S. Mensch and Cynthia B. Lloyd, "Gender Differences in the Schooling Experiences of Adolescents in Low-Income Countries: The Case of Kenya," Studies in Family Planning 29, no. 2 (1998): 167-84; Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark (n. 12 above).
42. If the school was mixed but had segregated classrooms, one section each of girls and boys was selected, and the visit was extended for a second week.
43. Much qualitative data were also collected in the classroom relating to student-teacher interactions. These data have not yet been analyzed.
44. Separate questionnaires were developed for boys and girls. If the section of third-year preparatory contained fewer than 35 students, all students in the section were interviewed, If the section selected contained more than 35 students, half were interviewed. In mixed schools, boys and girls were interviewed separately.
45. Home economics is taught only to girls, and agricultural/industrial studies is taught only to boys. The number of classes observed sometimes fell below the ideal if the teacher was absent, if there were scheduling problems, or if the home economics or agricultural/industrial studies class was scheduled at the end of the school week when the student interview took place, thus forcing the cancellation of one or the other of these classes.
46. The linked sample includes more girls than boys because we found a greater number of all-girls schools in the 12 additional PSUs selected (see n. 29 above for an explanation of how PSUs were selected).
47. El Tawila, Ibrahim, et al.
48. Within the set of school quality variables selected for inclusion, the maximum correlation between any pair is 0.6, but relatively few pairs have correlations that high. As an example of conceptually similar variables, we retained a measure of whether or not a school had one shift or more than one shift and deleted other highly correlated measures of time to learn, such as the average length of the school day or school week. We also retained a measure of punishment by hitting rather than punishment in general because corporal punishment is illegal in Egypt.
49. We selected the regularity of home economics and agricultural classes as an indicator of school organization, as these classes, while required by the core curriculum, are likely to be taken less seriously in schools that suffer from poor organization.
50. Range, as used in this paragraph, refers to the range from one standard deviation above to one standard deviation below the mean.
51. Glewwe and Jacoby (n. 12 above); Paul Glewwe, Margaret Grosch, Hanan Jacoby, and Marlaine Lockheed, "An Eclectic Approach to Estimating the Determinants of Achievement in Jamaican Primary Education," World Bank Economic Review 9, no. 2 (1995): 231-58.
52. Glewwe and Jacoby (n. 12 above); Paul Glewwe, Margaret Grosch, Hanan Jacoby, and Marlaine Lockheed, "An Eclectic Approach to Estimating the Determinants of Achievement in Jamaican Primary Education," World Bank Economic Review 9, no. 2 (1995): 231-58.
53. Salwa Hussein, "Socio-Economic Disparities and Internal Migration among Egyptian Governorates," in Studies in African and Asian Demography: CDC Annual Seminar, 1987, Cairo Demographic Centre Monograph Series, no. 17 (Cairo: Cairo Demographic Centre, 1988): pp. 199-247.
54. Students scoring above 90 percent on the primary school-leaving exam appear to be able to choose the preparatory school they will attend. In the 1997 ASCE survey, we asked adolescents whose last school-leaving exam was for primary what they had scored on the exam. Only 5 percent of students were able to provide an answer. Therefore, we have no way of knowing from our data which students might have been allowed some choice of preparatory schools. In rural areas, however, there is rarely more than one preparatory school available for each sex. In urban areas, the few students who score above 90 have some choice of schools.
55. It is typical in Egypt to include a more elaborate series of dummy variables for residence, including urban governorates (Cairo and Alexandria), urban upper Egypt, urban lower Egypt, rural upper Egypt, and rural lower Egypt. In this analysis, the regression could not run when we included these variables because there were no students who dropped out in the urban governorate category. For age of entry into primary school, see Antoine Bommier and Sylvie Lambert, "Education Demand and Age at School Enrollment in Tanzania," Journal of Human Resources 35, no. 1 (2000): 177-203; Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark (n. 12 above).
56. It is typical in Egypt to include a more elaborate series of dummy variables for residence, including urban governorates (Cairo and Alexandria), urban upper Egypt, urban lower Egypt, rural upper Egypt, and rural lower Egypt. In this analysis, the regression could not run when we included these variables because there were no students who dropped out in the urban governorate category. For age of entry into primary school, see Antoine Bommier and Sylvie Lambert, "Education Demand and Age at School Enrollment in Tanzania," Journal of Human Resources 35, no. 1 (2000): 177-203; Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark (n. 12 above).
57. The odds ratios for these variables are not shown. Readers interested in data not shown in the article may contact the authors.
58. Deon Filmer and Lant Pritchett, "The Effect of Household Wealth on Educational Attainment: Evidence from 35 Countries," Population and Development Review 25, no. 1 (1999): 85-120.
59. Ragui Assaad suggested that we create separate indexes for urban and rural (e-mail message to Cynthia B. Lloyd, 2001). The 20 questions include, Does the household's dwelling have more than one room per two residents? Does it have a kitchen, piped water, a toilet, a radio, a TV, a washing machine, a refrigerator, a water heater, a telephone, an air conditioner, a video machine, a motorcycle, a truck, a personal car? Does any member of the household own, in whole or in part, agricultural land, buildings, vacant land, a factory/workshop, or other similar assets?
60. See Stata User's Guide, Release 7 (College Station, Tex.: Stata Corp. 2001), 1:505-10.
61. El Tawila, Wassef, et al. (n. 14 above).
62. Barbara S. Mensch, Barbara L. Ibrahim, Susan M. Lee, and Omaima El-Gibaly, "Gender-Role Attitudes among Egyptian Adolescents," Studies in Family Planning 34, no. 1 (2003): 8-18.
63. Sajeda Amin and Cynthia B. Lloyd, "Women's Lives and Rapid Fertility Decline: Some Lessons from Bangladesh and Egypt," Working Paper no. 117 (Population Council, New York, 1998).
64. While the size of the coefficient on the shifts variable changes depending on which group of school-quality variables are included in the model, even when we drop the variables most highly correlated with urban residence-total class size and teacher's years of experience-the coefficient is large and significant (4.2 at the 1 percent significance level). Furthermore, if we distinguish statistically between morning and afternoon shifts, girls attending schools with morning shifts are more likely to drop out than those attending schools with afternoon shifts. Girls attending one-shift schools are the least likely to drop out. The reasons for this are not yet known.
65. The question to students was worded as follows: At this school during the preparatory stage, did any teacher ever insult your ability, telling you that you are a failure or won't succeed in school?
66. Readers interested in data not shown in the article may contact the authors.
67. Nora Guhl Naguib and Cynthia B. Lloyd, Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior: Egypt (New York: Population Council, 1994).
68. Laila Nawar, Cynthia B. Lloyd, and Barbara Ibrahim, "Women's Autonomy and Gender Roles in Egyptian Families," in Family, Gender, and Population in the Middle East: Policies in Context, ed. Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995), pp. 147-78.
69. Lloyd, Mensch, and Clark (n. 12 above).