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**Table 6. Community Characteristics**

(Averages of answers of all school stakeholders)

|||**Full Sa**|**mple**|||**Rural**<br>|**areas**|||**Urban**<br>|**areas**||**Rural vs.**<br>**urban**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Mean**|**Min**|**Max**|**Sd**|**Mean**|**Min**|**Max**|**sd**|**Mean**|**Min**|**Max**|**sd**|**p-value**|
|**Divide within the village/neighborhood**||||||||||||||
|Extent of divide (1-low; 5- high)|**2.67**|1.55|3.89|0.48|**2.56**|1.55|3.77|0.43|**2.88**|1.83|3.89|0.50|**0.000**|
|Agree with: “Parents in my community<br>still do not understand the benefits of<br>education for their children”|<br>**0.489**|0.00|0.933|0.19|**0.481**|0.00|0.867|0.18|**0.504**|0.00|0.933|0.20|0.220|
|**Trust and cooperation**||||||||||||||
|Think that “In this village /neighborhood,<br>there are people who want to take<br>advantage”|**0.32**|0.03|0.77|0.17|**0.29**|0.03|0.72|0.16|**0.36**|0.05|0.77|0.18|**0.010**|
|Think that “most people in this<br>village/neighborhood are willing to help if<br>you need it”|**0.65**|0.13|1.00|0.19|**0.68**|0.13|1.00|0.19|**0.59**|0.18|0.90|0.18|**0.000**|
|Think that “village members are likely to<br>cooperate in the case of water shortage”|**0.69**|0.03|1.00|0.19|**0.71**|0.03|1.00|0.19|**0.66**|0.30|1.00|0.18|**0.048**|
|Participated in community activities in the<br>last year|**0.24**|0.00|0.73|0.17|**0.23**|0.00|0.73|0.17|**0.25**|0.00|0.67|0.17|0.249|

Note: The p-values reported in the last column are generated by either one-tailed tests of equality of means or Chi-square tests.

# **II.d. Correlates of School Performance**

83. In this section we aim to identify the factors that are significantly correlated with school performance (as measured by the five education “outputs” identified earlier). In the first half simple pair-wise correlations are presented. These are followed by estimates from regression analysis.

84. Table 7 presents only the variables that are significantly correlated with at least one of the five education outputs. In other words, if a variable for which descriptive statistics presented earlier is not reported in Table 7 that indicates that the variable is not correlated with any of the five measures of school performance. The top panel of Table 7 shows that most proxies of school resources are correlated with the proportion of students who excelled in math and Albanian in the 2009 final examination. In particular, excellence in both math and language appears more likely in urban schools, schools that have a phone (which might proxy the quality of local infrastructures), and schools who do not tend to suffer from power shortages. The presence of a library in the school also seems to be positively correlated with students‟ performance in the math test, but not in the Albanian test.

85. As for the availability and quality of human resources, there is no significant correlation between education outcomes and: characteristics of the school director; education of teachers; and student-teacher ratio (not reported in the table). We do however find years of teaching experience, teachers‟ motivation and wages to be significantly and positively correlated with students‟ excellence in the language exam. Teachers‟ motivation seems also to be negatively correlated with students‟ drop-out rate.

86. The second panel of Table 7 focuses on measures of top-down accountability and transparency. The only factors found to be correlated with at least one of the education outcomes are the number of visits from RED inspectors, and perceptions of corruption in the appointment of teachers. The former is correlated positively with students‟ excellence in Albanian and negatively with drop-out rate; the latter is positively correlated with drop-out rate.