Educational outsourcing in public schools: decision-making mechanisms and perceived teaching quality

Abstract

Purpose: across education systems worldwide, public schools are increasingly turning to educational outsourcing (EO) to deliver standard curriculum, yet evidence of its effectiveness remains mixed. This study aims to model the antecedents and underlying mechanisms shaping stakeholders’ perceptions of the teaching quality of outsourced programs (OPs).

Design/methodology/approach: the authors surveyed 224 school leaders and teachers from 18% of all publicly funded Hong Kong secondary schools (n = 67) about their EO practices. Specifically, they examined decision-making across the partnership cycle from the identification of providers to postservice evaluation of the OPs via multilevel ordered Logit analysis.

Findings: staff responsible for overseeing or administering OPs rated them as less effective than vice-principals. OPs were rated lower when purchasing decisions relied primarily on subjective inputs (e.g. colleague opinions) rather than objective evidence (e.g. student learning outcomes). Staff who collaborated directly with OP providers also gave lower ratings, as did postservice evaluations that incorporated teacher feedback. Conversely, staff rated OPs more favorably when they aligned with budget plans. Vice-principals who viewed OP rules as helpful were more likely to report OPs that met budget expectations, which in turn was associated with higher ratings. Overall, OPs that remained within budget and incorporated teacher feedback received higher evaluations.

Originality/value: unlike prior studies that focus on isolated correlates of OP quality, this study explicates the underlying mechanisms and interactions among key factors, offering a more nuanced and integrated understanding of EO quality.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Taehee Choi: orcid.org/0000-0001-8840-4082

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