Monitoring school effectiveness in developing countries

Reviews on school effectiveness research in developing countries indicate that between-school variances are much larger than in industrialized countries. Resource input factors appear to have a larger impact in developing countries, while there are relatively few studies that have focused on instructional processes. Results at this level are not very clear at this stage. Local contexts may shape and interact with conditions that are expected to enhance effectiveness. Given the high stakes that are involved and the degrees of existing variation, school effectiveness studies in developing countries have the potential to be at the cutting edge of empirical school effectiveness research in the near future. Integration and application of the knowledge-base in evaluation and monitoring projects by means of school process indicators is seen as the most responsible way to use the research findings for improvement purposes.