A Simple Approach for Identifying Underperforming Schools

This paper outlines a purely statistical approach for evaluating school performance within a district. Three performance criteria are detailed: absolute performance, relative performance and conditional performance. The criteria are applied to the Barbadian secondary school system. The study finds that when the three criteria are used in conjunction they can identify schools that are consistently good or poor performers. In the case of Barbados, there was a general improvement in secondary school performance over the period, with no single school appearing consistently on the list of underperformers.