Page 9 Albanian (with the expected negative sign) was lack of cohesion within members of the community. Students‟ excellence in math, however, was correlated with a larger set of factors. The proportion of students excelling in math was lower in schools with poor facilities. While teachers‟ characteristics did not appear significant, teacher appraisal and transparency with respect to teachers‟ absence from school were; indeed, students‟ excellence in math was more likely in schools where teachers believed they would be penalized if they underperformed, and where a teacher absence register existed and was regularly used. Lack of parental involvement in the school also correlated negatively, with students‟ performance in the final math exam. A father‟s education was strongly and positively associated with children‟s performance in math. And the extent of divide (lack of perceived cohesion) in the community appears to matter by reducing the proportion of students excelling in both math and language.

# **_1.c.4. Lab-type experiments and parents’ demand for accountability_**

31. The low levels of parent participation in school governance structures could reflect lack of information or parents‟ reluctance to hold teachers accountable. As discussed earlier **,** Albania has made concerted efforts to improve governance across the public sector. Its efforts in the education sector have been received positively by households. Seeking to complement governance improvements in education compact and the supply of education services, the Government has been investing in shortening the route to accountability, by strengthening participatory accountability structures (see again Figure 1). However, the data collected in the Albania School Stakeholder Survey indicate that parental participation in these structures is still very low. Is this lack of participation owing to poor institutions, a lack of knowledge and understanding, or a preference not to participate?

32. Parents appear seriously under-informed about accountability structures in their children‟s schools, and in many places these structures are not operating as they should. The findings summarized previously, highlight both a departure in _de facto_ accountability structures from how the MoES intends them to function _de jure_ , as well as a severe lack of information among parents about these structures. Contrary to MoES directives, in about 30 percent of schools, the school director participated and voted in school board meetings. In 81 percent of the schools, parent class representatives were elected by parents as intended, rather than appointed by teachers; and in only 43 percent of the schools were teacher school board members elected by teachers rather than appointed by the school directors. Only half of parents report participating in electing parent class representatives, and about 70 percent of those who did not participate were unaware either of the existence of parent class representatives or of the fact that they should be elected by parents. Moreover the survey identified a worrying proportion of parents who were unaware of the existence of the school board (43%), including a large proportion of elected parent class representatives (23%) and parents who had voted for parent class representatives (31%). This indicates that information problems are severe, even among parents who are participating in school governance in some way.

33. But if they had more information, would parents participate? The survey findings about the functioning of participatory accountability structures and parents‟ information, begs the question: _If parents were informed, would they participate in holding schools and teachers to account?_ Part III presents the conclusions of an analytical attempt to directly measure parents‟ preferences for participation through specially designed lab-type experiments (LTEs) that were conducted with a random sample of teachers and parents who responded to the school stakeholder survey.

34. Experimental techniques allow a controlled simulation of the parent-teacher accountability relationship. Lab-type experiments (LTEs) facilitate the measurement of individuals‟ values, beliefs and preferences that cannot be captured in survey data. They have been used in a number of