van Zanten*, A., 2009. Competitive arenas and schools' logics of action: a European comparison. Compare, 39(1), pp.85-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920802447867 [Q2]

This article analyses the impact of competitive arenas on schools' logics of action in six local European contexts (London, Paris, Lille, Charleroi, Budapest and Lisbon). It first examines how competitive processes affect different schools' activities (recruitment, provision of options, promotion, tracking, provision for children with special needs and discipline) and how they are perceived by head teachers, teachers and parents. It then presents four ideal leading orientations (entrepreneurial, monopolistic, tactician and adaptive) developed by schools in response to competition according to their position in the local hierarchy and to their vulnerability to market processes, and it further probes into how these leading orientations are linked to the degree of internal coherence and consensus in schools. The conclusion insists on the importance of taking into account these local processes both to better understand schools as specific organisations and to improve their effectiveness.

Verger, A., BonaL, X. and Zancajo, A., 2016. What are the role and impact of public-private partnerships in education? A realist evaluation of the Chilean education quasi-market. Comparative Education Review, 60(2), pp.223-248. DOI: 10.1086/685557 [Q1]

The superiority of market mechanisms in educational provision is a premise that has received renewed emphasis under the regime of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The central idea of PPPs—enthusiastically embraced by a range of international organizations, development agencies and scholars—is grounded in the assumption that competition between public and private schools is an effective means of promoting education quality and efficiency. PPP policy frameworks are expected to establish genuine market dynamics in which suppliers innovate and boost the quality of their education services as a way to attract families, who are portrayed as benefit maximizers and well-informed consumers. The application of these market ideas to education, however, has suffered from a series of modifications and failures under real world conditions. This study is based on the case of Chile—the most market-oriented education system in the world—and examines how few of the taken-for-granted benefits of market-oriented provision either have been or can be fulfilled, due to the nature of the supply structure and to the effects of agents’ expectations and behaviors.

Patrinos, H.A., Barrera-Osorio, F. and Guáqueta, J., 2009. The role and impact of public-private partnerships in education. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Building on previous work, the international literature, the results of recently completed and ongoing impact evaluations, and the World Development Report 2004 (World Bank 2003a) framework, this book presents a conceptualization of the issues related to PPPs, a detailed review of studies with rigorous evaluations, and guidelines on how to create successful PPPs in education. The World Bank has been involved in exploring the private sector’s participation in the provision of public goods for several years (see Bell 1995 for a general overview). PPPs have been studied in depth in health (World Bank 2003b; Harding 2002) and in education (Jallade 1973; Blomqvist and Jimenez 1989; Lockheed and van Eeghen 1998; James 1993; LaRocque and Patrinos 2006; World Bank 2006). Recent contributions to the literature are the proceedings from a conference jointly organized by the World Bank and Harvard University in 2005 (Chakrabarti and Peterson 2008; Patrinos and Sosale, 2007). Also, the World Bank held a follow-up international conference on PPPs in 2007 where six rigorous studies of PPPs in education were presented.

Bedi, A.S. and Garg, A., 2000. The effectiveness of private versus public schools: The case of Indonesia. Journal of Development Economics, 61(2), pp.463-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3878(00)00065-1 [Q1]

In most developing countries, education is largely publicly provided. However, the scarcity of public funds and recent evidence of public school inefficiency, calls for an examination of the dominant role of the state. In this paper, we use data from Indonesia to examine the effectiveness of public versus private schools. We use labor market earnings as our measure of effectiveness. Controlling for observable personal characteristics and school selection, we find that graduates of private secondary schools perform better in the labor market. This is contrary to the widely held belief, in Indonesia, that public secondary schools are superior. Our findings, coupled with the existing literature on private school cognitive and cost advantages, suggest the need for greater private participation in the education sector.

Newhouse, D. and Beegle, K., 2006. The effect of school type on academic achievement evidence from indonesia. Journal of Human Resources, 41(3), pp.529-557. DOI: 10.3368/jhr.XLI.3.529 [Q1]

Using Indonesian data, this paper evaluates the impact of school type on the academic achievement of junior secondary school students (grades 7–9). Public school graduates, after controlling for a wide variety of characteristics, score 0.17 to 0.3 standard deviations higher on the national exit exam than their privately schooled peers. This finding is robust to OLS, fixedeffects, and instrumental variable estimation strategies. Students attending Muslim private schools, including Madrassahs, fare no worse on average than students attending secular private schools. Our results provide indirect evidence that higher-quality inputs at public junior secondary schools promote higher test scores.

Ball, S.J. and Maroy, C., 2009. School's logics of action as mediation and compromise between internal dynamics and external constraints and pressures. Compare, 39(1), pp.99-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920701825544 [Q2]

This paper, based on 14 case studies of schools situated in six local urban spaces (within the urban agglomerations of Budapest, Charleroi, Lille, Lisbon, London and the Creteil/Paris region), will analyse the internal logics of action of these schools and show that they are conditioned by the interaction between internal (school narrative identity, principal strategy, school intake and micropolitics) and external factors (position of the school in the local space of competitive interdependence and policy interventions). First, we will show that there are some convergences across the six local areas in the schools' logics of action. Second, we will focus on various conditions which could affect these schools' logics of action. We will demonstrate that key conditions are the ‘school mix’, related to the position of the school in the local area, and the internal dynamic equilibrium. We will also concentrate on the particular role of the principal. In conclusion, the effects of these results on inequalities will be stressed.

Jabbar, H., 2015. “Every kid is money” market-like competition and school leader strategies in New Orleans. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(4), pp.638-659. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373715577447 [Q1]

One of the primary aims of choice policies is to introduce competition between schools. When parents can choose where to send their children, there is pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, do school leaders recognize market pressures? What strategies do they use in response? This study examines how choice creates school-level actions using qualitative data from 30 schools in New Orleans. Findings suggest that school leaders did experience market pressures, yet their responses to such pressures varied, depending in part on their perceptions of competition and their status in the market hierarchy. Some took steps toward school improvement, by making academic and operational changes, whereas others engaged in marketing or cream skimming.

Jabbar, H., 2016. Selling schools: Marketing and recruitment strategies in New Orleans. Peabody Journal of Education, 91(1), pp.4-23. DOI: 10.1080/0161956X.2016.1119554 [Q1]

Under new school-choice policies, schools feel increasing pressure to market their schools to parents and students. I examine how school leaders in New Orleans used different marketing strategies based on their positions in the market hierarchy and the ways in which they used formal and informal processes to recruit students. This study relied on qualitative interviews, observations of board meetings, and board-meeting minutes from a random sample of 30 schools in New Orleans. Findings indicate that marketing was a very common strategy. Yet even though choice policies were meant to give parents, not schools, power in selecting where their children attend school, some schools found ways to avoid enrolling disadvantaged students, often by not marketing. Faced with the pressure of accountability and charter renewal, these schools traded greater funding for potentially greater averages in student achievement. At the same time, some schools that were oversubscribed invested in marketing and recruitment anyway to draw less affluent parents to the school, who might not be aware of the open application and enrollment process. I discuss the implications of these marketing strategies.

Jabbar, H., 2015. Competitive networks and school leaders’ perceptions: The formation of an education marketplace in post-Katrina New Orleans. American Educational Research Journal, 52(6), pp.1093-1131. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831215604046 [Q1]

School choice policies are often based on the idea that competition will generate better outcomes for all students. Yet there is limited empirical research about how school leaders actually perceive competition and whom they view as rivals. Drawing on concepts from economic sociology, I study principals’ competitive networks and the sets of schools they view as rivals, and I use network and statistical analysis to explore factors that explain the existence of a competitive tie between two schools. Most school leaders perceived some competition, but the extent to which they competed with other schools varied significantly. Factors that predicted a competitive relationship between two schools included geography, student transfers, school performance, principal characteristics, and charter network.

Jabbar, H., 2016. Between structure and agency: Contextualizing school leaders’ strategic responses to market pressures. American Journal of Education, 122(3), pp.399-431. DOI: 10.1086/685850 [Q1]

School choice is expected to place pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, little research has examined how competition for students actually operates in socially embedded education markets. Economic approaches tend to emphasize individual actors’ choices and agency, an undersocialized perspective, whereas sociological approaches emphasize social structures such as race, class, and institutions over agency, an oversocialized view. In this study, I examine the interplay between structure and agency in education markets to (a) examine how a school’s position in the market hierarchy influences how it is represented and viewed as a rival by network competitors and to (b) explore how a school’s position in the network of competitors influences the possible and actual strategic actions that schools adopt in response to market pressures. Using case studies from New Orleans, I find that school leaders’ positions in the socially constructed market hierarchy and in a social network of competitors influence their actions, which further determine their market positions.

Weber, R., Farmer, S. and Donoghue, M., 2020. Predicting school closures in an era of austerity: The case of Chicago. Urban Affairs Review, 56(2), pp.415-450. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087418802359 [Q1]

What factors do administrators consider when (dis)investing in public facilities? We model school closure decisions in Chicago from 2003 to 2013 with multinomial logit models that estimate the decision to close or “turnaround” schools as a function of building, student, geographic, political, and neighborhood factors during two mayoral administrations. The results from our specifications validate the “official” rationale for closures and turnarounds: Low test scores are associated with closures and turnarounds under Mayor Daley, and underutilization is associated with closures under Mayor Emanuel. However, our findings also reveal some distance between technical-rational decision making and the realities of capital budgeting under austerity. The race of students and proximity to both the Central Business District and charter schools also predicted closures. This suggests multiple, potentially conflicting, interests that school districts balance to serve the needs of school-age populations and taxpayers and also the potential for burdening already vulnerable populations with the negative effects of disinvestment.

Potterton, A.U. (2019), "Leaders’ experiences in Arizona’s mature education market", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2018-0043 [Q1]

Purpose

In Arizona’s mature, market-based school system, we know little about how school leaders make meaning of school choice policies and programs on the ground. Using ethnographic methods, the author asked: How do school leaders in one Arizona district public school and in its surrounding community, which includes a growing number of high-profile and “high-performing” Education Management Organisation (EMO) charter schools, make meaning of school choice policies and programs? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The author analysed 18 months of qualitative fieldnotes that the author collected during participant observations and six semi-structured school leader interviews from both traditional district public schools in the area (n=4) and leaders from EMO charter schools (n=2).

Findings

School leaders’ decision-making processes were influenced by competitive pressures. However, perceptions of these pressures and leadership actions varied widely and were complicated by inclusive and exclusive social capital influences from stakeholders. District public school leaders felt pressure to package and sell schools in the marketplace, and charter leaders enjoyed the notion of markets and competition.

Practical implications

As market-based policies and practices become increasingly popular in the USA and internationally, a study that examines leaders’ behaviours and actions in a long-standing school choice system is timely and relevant.

Originality/value

This study uniquely highlights school leaders’ perceptions and actions in a deeply embedded education market, and provides data about strategies and behaviours as they occurred.

Jessen, S.B. and DiMartino, C., 2016. Perceptions of prestige: A comparative analysis of school online media marketing (No. 230). Working Paper.

Marketing and branding in public education are becoming increasingly widespread practices. The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework for comparing the onlinemark eting practices, including Web sites, social media, and YouTube, of different types of schools. Drawing on existing literature from the business sector regarding marketing, the authors argue that, in particular, Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) are engaging in “prestige” rather than “informational” marketing (Ackerberg, 2001), which can influence the perception of school quality for parents and potential investors.

Zancajo, A., 2020. Schools in the marketplace: analysis of school supply responses in the Chilean education market. Educational Policy, 34(1), pp.43-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819881781 [Q1]

This article presents the findings of research focused on schools’ responses to competitive environments. Using the Chilean education market as a case study, the article analyzes not only the responses developed by schools in different domains in the face of competitive incentives but also their diversity, as well as motivations, rationalities, and objectives behind these responses. The findings also show how different mediating factors at the school and local levels are essential to any understanding of the capacity of market-oriented policies to alter the behavior of schools and obtain the expected results in terms of equity.

Potterton, A. U. (2018). Market pressure and Arizona public school leaders: “That package is like a brand new Cadillac!” Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 3 (2), 284-309. DOI: 10.30828/real/2018.2.7 [Q3]

In the United States, long-standing school choice policies and practices in Arizona have developed into a market-based system of schooling for many residents in the state, especially in the larger ities. In this study, I analyze qualitative data gathered from school leaders and parents in one Arizona district public school who discussed marketing pressures and various notions of accountability and whose perceptions related to rapidly growing school choice reforms and increasing testing demands. I also describe the ways in which many members of the school team (e.g., school administrators, teachers, staff) were affected by everincreasing competitive expectations. By examining market pressures experienced by parents and other stakeholders, we can understand better some consequences of expanding school choice policies and programs on those experiencing educational reforms in local settings.

Chubb, J.E. and Moe, T.M., 1990. Politics, markets, and America's schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Chubb, J.E. and Moe, T.M., 1990. America's public schools: Choice is a panacea. The Brookings Review, 8(3), pp.4-12. https://doi.org/10.2307/20080159 [Q4]