Urban-rural literacy gaps in sub-Saharan Africa: The roles of socioeconomic status and school quality

Comparative Education Review

Volumn 50, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 581-602

  Zhang, Yanhong ^a  

^a UNESCO Institute for Statistics   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33845638414     PISSN: 00104086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/507056     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. For details of the EFA and MDG, see UNESCO, Education for All: The Darkar Framework for Action (Paris: UNESCO, 2000);
2. and United Nations, UN Millennium Declaration (New York: United Nations, 2000).
3. For details on the monitoring of the achieving of the EFA goals, see UNESCO, EFA Monitoring Report 2002/2003: Education for All; Is the World On Track? (Paris: UNESCO, 2002),
4. EFA Monitoring Report 2003/2004: Gender and Education for All; The Leap to Equality (Paris: UNESCO, 2003),
5. and EFA Monitoring Report 2004/2005: Education for All; The Quality Imperative (Paris: UNESCO, 2004).
6. For improvement in achieving universal primary education, see UNESCO, EFA Monitoring Report 2004/2005.
7. The figures on out-of-school children are based on UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion from Primary Education (Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2005).
8. The NER is a ratio of the number of students enrolled in primary schools to the total number of children of primary school age.
9. UNESCO, EFA Monitoring Report 2004/2005.
10. EFA Monitoring Report 2004/2005.Ibid.
11. Dhurumbeer Kulpoo, The Quality of Education: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survy of Schools; Mauritius, SACMEQ Policy Research Report no. 1 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1998);
12. Friedhelm Voigts, The Quality of Education: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survy of Schools; Namibia, SACMEQ Policy Research no. 2 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1998);
13. Thomas Machingaidze, Patrick Pfukani, and Sibangani Shumba, The Quality of Education: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survey of Schools; Zimbabwe, SACMEQ Policy Research no. 3 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1998);
14. Sebtuu Nassor and Khadija Ali Mohammed, The Quality of Educatiun: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survey of Schools; Zanzibar, SACMEQ Policy Research no. 4 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1998);
15. Manasseh Nkamba and Joe Kanyika, The Quality of Education: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survey of Schools; Zambia, SACMEQ Policy Research Report no. 5 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 1998);
16. Juliana Nzomo, Mary Kariuki, and Lilian Guantai, The Quality of Education: Some Policy Suggestions Based on a Survey of Schools; Kenya, SACMEQ Policy Research Report no. 6 (Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, 2001);
17. M. Michaelowa, Quality and Equity of Learning Outcomes in Francophone Africa (Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2004).
18. See the six publications on SACMEQ previously cited in n. 6; Mioko Saito, "Gender vs. Socioeconomic Status and School Location Differences in Grade 6 Reading Literacy in Five African Countries," Studies in Educational Evaluation 24, no. 3 (1998): 249-61.
19. The Program of the Analysis of Educational Systems of CONFEMEN, where CONFEMEN stands for Conférence des Ministres de l'Éducation des Pays Ayant le français en Partage (Conference of Education Ministers of Francophone Countries across the World).
20. Jean-Marc Bernard, Eléments d'appréciation de la qualité de l'enseignement primaire en Afrique francophone (2003), Le pôle de Dakar (Dakar, Senegal), http://www.poledakar.org/article.php? id_article=119 (last acccessed August 2, 2006);
21. Katharina Michaelowa, Quality and Equity of Learning Outcomes in Francophone Africa (Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2004).
22. UNESCO, EFA Monitoring Report 2004/2005.
23. James H. Williams, "Cross-National Variations in Rural Mathematics Achievement: A Descriptive Overview," Journal of Research in Rural Education 20, no. 5 (2005), http://www.umaine.edu/jrre/20-5.htm (last accessed May 22, 2006).
24. Kenneth Ross and Linda Zuze, "Traditional and Alternative Views of School System Performance," IIEP Newsletter 22, no. 4 (2004): 8-9.
25. Michaelowa, Quality and Equity of Learning Outcomes in Francophone Africa.
26. Philip Foster, "Educational and Social Differentiation in Less Developed Countries," Comparative Education Review 21, nos. 2-3 (1977): 211-29.
27. Stephen Heyneman and William Loxley, "The Distribution of Primary School Quality within High- and Low-Income Countries," Comparative Education Review 27, no. 1 (1983): 108-18,
28. and "The Effect of Primary School Quality on Academic Achievement across Twenty-nine High- and Low-Income Countries," American Journal of Sociology 88, no. 6 (1983): 1162-94.
29. The same view was delineated in other works before and after these two references, i.e., Stephen Heyneman, "Influences on Academic Achievement: A Comparison of Results from Uganda and More Industrialized Countries," Sociology of Education 49 (July 1976): 200-211,
30. "Differences between Developed and Developing Countries: Comments on Simmons and Alexander's 'Determinants of School Achievement,'" Economic Development and Cultural Change 28, no. 2 (1980): 403-6,
31. and "The Search for School Effects in Developing Countries: 1966-1986," Seminar Paper no. 33 (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [IBRD], Washington, DC, 1986);
32. Stephen Heyneman and William Loxley, "Influences on Academic Achievement across High- and Low-Income Countries: A Reanalysis of IEA Data," Sociology of Education 55, no. 1 (1982): 13-21.
33. See Heyneman, "Influences on Academic Achievement," and "A Brief Note on the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Test Performance among Ugandan Primary School Children," Comparative Education Review 20, no. 1 (1976): 42-47;
34. William Loxley, "The Impact of Primary School Quality on Learning in Egypt," International Journal of Educational Development 3, no. 1 (1983): 33-45.
35. Abby Rubin Riddell, "An Alternative Approach to the Study of School Effectiveness in Third World Countries," Comparative Education Review 33, no. 4 (1989): 481-97.
36. David P. Baker, Brian Goesling, and Gerald K. Letendre, "Socioeconomic Status, School Quality, and National Economic Development: A Cross-National Analysis of the 'Heyneman-Loxley Effect' on Mathematics and Science Achievement," Comparative Education Review 46, no. 3 (2002): 291-312.
37. Kenneth Ross, Mioko Saito, Stephanie Dolata, Miyako Ikeda, and Linda Zuze, Data Archive for the SACMEQ I and SACMEQ II Projects (Paris: IIEP-UNESCO, 2004).
38. For details of the input-process-output approach, see Stephen Raudenbush and J. Douglas Willms, "The Estimation of School Effects," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 20, no. 4 (1995): 307-35.
39. See also J. Douglas Willms, Monitoring School Performance: A Guide for Educators (London: Falmer, 1992).
40. Jaap Scheerens, Improving School Effectiveness, Fundamentals of Educational Planning Series (UNESCO: International Institute for Educational Planning, 2002).
41. Anthony Bryk and Stephen W. Raudenbush, Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods, 2nd ed. (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 2002).
42. Ina V. S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, Eugene J. Gonzalez, and Anne M. Kennedy, PIRLS 2001 International Report: IEA's Study of Reading Literacy Achievement in Primary Schools in 35 Countries (Chestnut Hill, MA: International Study Center, Boston College, 2003);
43. UNESCO/UIS-OECD, Literacy Skills for the World of Tomorrow (Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2003).
44. Bryk and Raudenbush, Hierarchical Linear Models.
45. For details on the evolution of funding mechanisms in South African schools, see Andrew Reschovsky, "Financing Schools in the New South Africa," Comparative Education Review 50, no. 1 (2006): 21-45.