Page 15 50. Empirical research focused on parental involvement in education governance through participatory “bottom up” accountability structures, is still in its infancy, but promising. While measures of parental background have for a long time been included in the empirical specifications employed in retrospective studies (again, with mixed results<sup>13</sup> ) attempts to measure and account for parental involvement in their children‟s education, and in participatory initiatives at the school level, are more recent. Retrospective studies conducted in the US (Houtenville and Conway, 2007) in Argentina (Eskeland and Filmer, 2007), in El Salvador (Jimenez and Sawada, 1999), in Mexico (Gertler et al., 2008; and Skoufias and Shapiro, 2006), among others, all show a significant impact of participatory programs and parental involvement on education outcomes.<sup>14</sup> Jimenez and Sawada (1999) found evidence that a local management system improved students' language skills and attendance in El Salvador. In Mexico Gertler, Patrinos, Rubio-Codina (2008) found that providing small grants ($500 to $700) to parent associations -to be used for infrastructure or materials that they considered important- improved student performance and reduced grade repetition by about 5%.<sup>15</sup> Skoufias and Shapiro (2006) investigated the effectiveness of the Mexican Quality Schools Program (PEC), within which parent associations developed and undertook school improvement plans funded by five-year grants of up to US$15,000. They found that participation in the program decreased drop-out, failure and repetition rates, and based on focus group interviews with parents and school directors, concluded that parents' involvement increased following the introduction of the program.<sup>1617</sup> 51. The evidence provided by studies based on RCTs is more mixed. In Kenya, alongside a program that allowed and funded public sector schools to hire extra teachers on short term contracts, some communities (both from the treatment and the control samples) were randomly selected for training in how to monitor teachers. The monitoring program had no impact on the attendance rates of the extra teachers and only a small, positive and insignificant effect on attendance rates of public sector teachers (Duflo et al. 2007). This was followed by Duflo, Dupas and Kremer (2009) implemented a controlled experiment in which 70 out of 140 Kenyan schools received an extra contract teacher, hired locally by a school committee made up of teachers and _elected_ parent representatives. At the end of the year, the school committees had to decide whether to hire the same contract teacher or a different one. Further, in half of the 70 schools, school committee members, including parent representatives, were trained on how to monitor and evaluate the performance of the contract teacher. The authors found that in the short term students assigned to the contract teachers performed better. However, this improvement in performance persisted only in schools in which committee members were trained and encouraged to meet and reassess the teacher. Also in Kenya, a program designed to strengthen ties between school committees and local educational authorities through training and joint meetings and under which school committees could award prizes to teachers who performed well, increased committee activity and the level of education of those elected to the committees but had no effect on teacher attendance (de

> 13 Mother‟s education seems to be the household characteristic most consistently related to students‟ performance.

> 14 For instance, Jimenez and Sawada (1999), Gertler, Patrinos, Rubio-Codina (2008) and Skoufias and Shapiro (2006) investigate the impact of specific participatory institutions in El Salvador and in Mexico respectively. In an ex post evaluation of the EDUCO program, Jimenez and Sawada (1999) found evidence that a local management system improved students' language skills and attendance.  The EDUCO program established community education associations, called ACEs, composed by _elected_ parents, which are given authority over the management of funds provided by the ministry, the hiring and firing of teachers, and the physical maintenance of the school. This program is therefore an example of the shortest possible route to teachers‟ accountability.

> 15 Parent associations also received training in the management of the funds and in participatory skills to increase their involvement in school activities. Based on qualitative data, such as interviews with parents, teachers and school directors, the authors argue that the program was successful in increasing parental participation in school matters. 16 Note that, compared to the EDUCO program, both AGE and PEC did not provide parents with direct means to hold teachers accountable, i.e. the route to accountability was much longer in this case.

> 17 Along the same lines, it may be the case that having parent associations in place but without financial resources is not as effective, that is it may be necessary to have a mandate and the resources.