Management autonomy for educational quality and equity: an evaluation of the Schools Quality Program (PEC)

This article aims to evaluate School Based Management (SBM), applied in Mexico through the Schools Quality Program (PEC), on schools performance and equity. From a quantitative approach, the PEC is evaluated by Differences-in-Differences (DiD) usin data from Enlace 2008-2013 and from the Statistics 911. From a qualitative approach, the PEC is analyzed in terms of school based management's success in a context of high privation by analysing data from a survey applied to a sample of schools benefited by the program. The findings indicate that PEC impacts in a positive and significant way only richer schools, while poorer ones do not show any improvement. From this analysis, the article proposes three hypotheses to explain the limited scope of the PEC in poorer schools. Finally, the document proposes a series of policy recommendations.