Education research

My research:

Research ARTICLES:

• Spaull, N. 2012. Poverty & privilege: primary school inequality in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development. In press. Available online 8 November 2012 (WP here)
• Taylor, S. & Spaull, N. 2013. “The effects of rapidly expanding primary school access on effective learning: The case of Southern and Eastern Africa since 2000” Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers. 01/13
• Spaull, N. & Taylor, S. 2012.  “Effective enrolment” – Creating a composite measure of educational access and educational quality to accurately describe education system performance in sub-Saharan Africa. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers. 21/12
• Spaull, N. 2012. Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa (July 2012 – Working Paper)
• Spaull, N. (2011). Primary School Performance in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. Paris: Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) Working Paper no.8.
• Spaull, N. 2011. A Preliminary Analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers.

Some recent PRESENTATIONS:

• March 2013. Presentation at Equal Education Society @UCT. “Understanding education in South Africa: Inequality, outcomes and resources” (5 March 2013)
• Feb 2013. SALDRU Seminar “An overview of South African schooling – understanding inequality and underperformance” (15 February 2013)
• Nov 2012. Education & the Law conference at Webber Wentzel – “Teacher content knowledge and teacher absenteeism in SA” (15 Nov 2012)
• Sept 2012. Carnegie 3 presentation at UCT – “Poverty and Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa” (4 Sept 2012)
• Aug 2012. NAPTOSA keynote address in Durban (24 Aug 2012) – “Education Report Card 1996-2011: An Ailing System” – also see my write up here, published on Politicsweb.
• Aug 2012. AEAA presentation in Gaborone (10 Aug 2012) – Primary School Performance in Southern Africa
• July 2012. UNISA (&JET) education presentation (12+13 July 2012) “Primary schooling in South Africa and Southern Africa: Inequality and Inefficiency“
• July 2012. Equal Education presentation (11 July 2012) – Challenges in SA Education.
• April 2012. SA Basic Education conference presentation (4 April 2012) – Primary School Performance in Southern Africa

Other Research:

1. My Masters thesis: Equity & Efficiency in South African primary schools : a preliminary analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa Although I suspect most people say this, it really is interesting and accessible 
2. (POLICY BRIEF) Identifying policy priorities to improve outcomes for poor primary school learners
3. (Book review) – ‘The Gospel According to Banerjee and Duflo‘ – a book review of “Poor Economics”, published in Development Southern Africa Volume 29, Issue 1, 2012 (forthcoming)

2013 RESEP Education Reading Group

During 2013 RESEP will be hosting a bi-weekly reading group where we discuss important readings in the field of education and the economics of education. I include the papers we will discuss each week below:

1. [26 Feb] Pritchett & Beatty (2012) “The negative consequences of overambitious curricula in developing countries
2. [12 Mar] Ferreira Gignoux (2013) “The measurement of educational inequality: Achievement and opportunity“
3. [26 Mar] Elmore (2004) Agency, Reciprocity and Accountability in Democratic Education.
4. [9 Apr] Schlotter, Schwerdt and Woessman (2009) Methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: An econometric toolbox

This list is not a definitive list of important journal articles on South African education, it is my selection, and I’m open to other suggestions. Secondly, as far as I am aware, there is no breach of copyright here since the books are either open-source (like HSRC) and the articles are available elsewhere on the internet.

If you only have time for a few articles, I would recommend articles 7, 11, 15, 16 and 18. Or read Fleisch’s book (below).

 

1. Carnoy, M., Chisolm, L., et al,  (2008). Towards Understanding Student Academic Performance in South Africa: A Pilot Study of Grade 6 Mathematics Lessons in South Africa. Pretoria: HSRC.
2. Case, A., & Deaton, A. (1999). School Inputs and Educational Outcomes in South Africa. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 1047-1084.
3. Crouch, L., & Mabogoane, T. (2001). No magic bullets, just tracer bullets: The role of learning resources, social advantage, and education management in improving the performance of South African schools. Social Dynamics, 27(1), 60-78.
4. DBE. (2011).  Macro Indicators Trends. Pretoria: Department of Basic Education.
5. Department of Basic Education. (2011). Report on the Annual National Assessments of 2011. Pretoria: Department of Basic Education.
6. Department of Education. (2008). Grade 3 Systemic Evaluation 2007 Leaflet. Pretoria: Department of Education.
7. Donalson, A. (1992). Content, Quality and Flexibility: The Economics of Education System Change. Spotlight 5/92. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations.
8. Fiske, E., & Ladd, H. (2004). Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-apartheid South Africa. Washington: Brookings Institution Press / HSRC Press.
9. Gustafsson, M., & Mabogoane, T. (2010). South Africa’s economics of education: A stocktaking and an agenda for the way forward. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers: 06/10.
10. Hanushek, E., & Woessmann, L. (2008). The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Working Paper No. 07-34.
11. Hoadley, U. (2010). What doe we know about teaching and learning in primary schools in South Africa? A review of the classroom-based research literature. Report for the Grade 3 Improvement project of the University of Stellenbosch. Western Cape Education Department.
12. Hoadley, U., & Ward, C. (2009). Managing to Learn: Instructional Leadership on South African Secondary Schools. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
13. Howie, S., Venter, E., Van Staden, S., Zimmerman, L., Long, C., Du Toit, C., et al. (2008). PIRLS 2006 Summary Report: South African Children’s Reading Literacy Achievement. Pretoria: Center for Evaluation and Assessment.
14. Moll, P. (1998). Primary schooling, cognitive skills, and wage in South Africa. Economica, 65(258), 263-284.
15. Taylor, N., Fleisch, B., & Shindler, J. (2008). Changes in Education since 1994. Pretoria: The Presidency: Input into the 15 year review process.
16. Van der Berg, S. (2007). Apartheid’s Enduring Legacy: Inequalities in Education. Journal of African Economies, 16(5), 849-880.
17. Van der Berg, S. (2008). How effective are poor schools? Poverty and educational outcomes in South Africa. Centre for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (CEGE) Discussion Papers 69.
18. Van der Berg, S., Burger, C., Burger, R., de Vos, M., du Rand, G., Gustafsson, M., Shepherd, D., Spaull, N., Taylor, S., van Broekhuizen, H., and von Fintel, D. (2011). Low quality education as a poverty trap. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, Department of Economics. Research report for the PSPPD project for Presidency.
19. Yamauchi, F. (2011). School quality, clustering and government subsidy in post-aparteid South Africa. Economics of Education Review, 146-156.
20. Prinsloo, C. & reddy, V. 2013. Educator leave in the South African public schooling system. HSRC Policy Brief
21. Taylor, S. 2012. A note on matric results and trends. Research note (*Very useful)

Some RESEP articles on education in South Africa:

1. Shepherd, D. (2011). Constraints to School Effectiveness: What prevents poor schools from delivering results? Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers 05/11. [PIRLS]
2. Spaull, N. (2011a). A Preliminary Analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers.
3. Taylor, S. (2011). Uncovering indicators of effective school management in South Africa using the National School Effectiveness Study. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers 10/11, 1-51. [NSES]
4. Taylor, S., & Yu, D. (2009). The Importance of Socioeconomic Status in Determining Educational Achievement in South Africa. Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers.
5. Van der Berg, S., & Louw, M. (2006). Lessons Learnt from SACMEQII: South African Student Performance in Regional Context. Investment Choices for Education in Africa. Johannesburg.

Books:

1. Fleisch, B. (2008). Primary Education in Crisis: Why South African schoolchildren underachieve in reading and mathematics. Cape Town. : Juta & Co.
2. Taylor, N., Muller, J., & Vinjevold, P. (2003). Getting Schools Working. Cape Town: Pearson Education.

Background to South Africa (economics):

1. Leibbrandt, M., Wegner, E., & Finn, A. (2011). The Policies for Reducing Income Inequality and Poverty in South Africa. University of Cape Town. Cape Town: Southern Africa Labour and Development Reserch Unit Working Paper Number 64.
2. Leibbrandt, M., Woolard, I., Finn, A., & Argent, J. (2010). Trends in South African income distribution and poverty since the fall of apartheid. Paris: OECD Publishing. (!)
3. Nattrass, N., & Seekings, J. (2010). The Economy and Poverty in the Twentieth Century in South Africa. Centre for Social Science Research Working Paper No. 276. (!)

Background to SACMEQ:

1. Hungi, N., Makuwa, D., Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., van Capelle, F., et al. (2011). SACMEQ III Project Results: Levels and Trends in School Resources among SACMEQ School Systems. Paris: Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
2. Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., Ikeda, M., Zuze, L., Murimba, S., et al. (2005). The Conduct of the SACMEQ III Project. In E. Onsomu, J. Nzomo, & C. Obiero, The SACMEQ II Project in Kenya: A Study of the Conditions of Schooling and the Quality of Education. Harare: SACMEQ.
3. Murimba, S. (2005) SACMEQ Mission, Approach and Projects. Prospects, vol. XXXV, no. 1, March 2005

Some other stuff

• Great course outline from Princeton on “Making schools effective in developing countries (2008-9)” by Marlaine Lockheed who is one of the international gurus in education.
• Very useful and succinct curriculum documents from Londonderry School District in North Hampshire, USA:
  • Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5

• The status of Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) in South African Public Schools (DOE, 2010)
• Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa