An increasing number of developing countries are introducing school-based management (SBM) reforms that are aimed at empowering principals and teachers or at strengthening their professional motivation, thereby enhancing their sense of school ownership. Many of these reforms have also strengthened parental involvement in the schools. SBM programs take many different forms in terms of who has the decision-making power and the degree of decision making that devolves to the school level. While some programs transfer authority only to school principals or teachers, others encourage or mandate...

While public-private partnerships in education in the United States have received a lot of attention, research on such partnerships elsewhere has been limited--even though such partnerships have been steadily gaining prominence, particularly in developing countries. Aiming to fill this gap, this book presents fresh, technically sound empirical evidence on the effectiveness and cost of various public-private education partnerships from around the world, including voucher programs and faith-based schools. The evidence on the impact in terms of school performance, targeting, and cost of...