Iraq Administration, School Monitoring, Private School Policies, and Teacher Training
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Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Planning • Ministry of Education Initiatives to Improve Quality of Education in the Kurdistan Region—Iraq Administration, School Monitoring, Private School Policies, and Teacher Training Georges Vernez Shelly Culbertson Louay Constant Rita Karam C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/rr960 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN: 978-0-8330-8868-0 Cover photo by Louay Constant. © Copyright 2016 Kurdistan Regional Government R® is a registered trademark. Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.html. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface The Ministry of Education (MoE) of the Kurdistan Region—Iraq (KRI) has been invest- ing in improving the quality of K–12 education. In support of its many initiatives to develop its education system, the Kurdistan Regional Government asked the RAND Corporation to advise on improving quality through several analytic efforts: assessing ongoing teacher train- ing, designing a quality assurance program for schools, advising on monitoring and incentiv- izing the private school sector, and proposing a new MoE administrative structure that can best support MoE’s multiple growth initiatives. This report fulfills that request building on two previous efforts: • Georges Vernez, Shelly Culbertson, and Louay Constant, Strategic Priorities for Improving Access to Quality Education in the Kurdistan Region—Iraq, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, MG-1140-1-KRG, 2014, and • Louay Constant, Shelly Culbertson, Cathleen Stasz, and Georges Vernez, Improving Tech- nical Vocational Education and Training in the Kurdistan Region—Iraq, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-277-KRG, 2014. This report was prepared by RAND Education for the KRI. The findings of this study should be of interest to persons involved in education in the KRI as well as to others elsewhere involved in quality improvement efforts in school systems. The principal investigators of this work are Georges Vernez and Shelly Culbertson. The authors can be contacted by email at [email protected] or by phone at 310-393-0411, extension 6211, and by email at [email protected]. For more information on RAND Education, contact the Director, Darleen Opfer, who can be reached by email at [email protected]; by phone at 310-393-0411, extension 4926; or by mail at RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 3138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138. More information about RAND is available at www.rand.org. iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figures ........................................................................................................... ix Tables ............................................................................................................ xi Summary .......................................................................................................xiii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ xix Abbreviations .................................................................................................. xxi CHAPTER ONE Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Background ....................................................................................................... 3 Economy, Population, and Workforce ......................................................................... 3 Education ......................................................................................................... 4 Basic and Secondary Education .............................................................................. 4 Higher Education .............................................................................................. 5 Adult Training ................................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER TWO Reorganizing the KRG Ministry of Education ........................................................... 7 Literature on Organization Design ............................................................................ 7 Hierarchy of Authority and Decisionmaking .............................................................. 8 Division of Labor .............................................................................................. 9 Summary .......................................................................................................10 Organization of Ministries of Education in Six Countries.................................................11 Levels of Senior Management ...............................................................................11 Hierarchy of Authority and Decisionmaking: Role of the Vice Minister ..............................12 Grouping: By Programs and Functions ....................................................................13 Linking: Few Formal Mechanisms .........................................................................15 Summary .......................................................................................................16 Why Reorganize the KRG’s Ministry of Education? .......................................................16 Changing Vision and Priorities .............................................................................16 High Level of Centralization ................................................................................17 Broad Span of Control at the Top of the Organization ..................................................18 Unclear Roles and Responsibilities .........................................................................18 Weak Coordination ...........................................................................................18 Changing Roles and Responsibilities .......................................................................19 v vi Initiatives to Improve Quality of Education in the Kurdistan Region—Iraq Staffing Challenges ...........................................................................................19 Missing Functions ............................................................................................19 Proposed Organization for the KRG’s Ministry of Education ............................................19 Overall Structure .............................................................................................19 Groupings of Education and Support Functions ..........................................................21 Assignment of Responsibilities for the Proposed Organizational Structure .......................... 22 CHAPTER THREE Developing a School Quality Assurance System ........................................................ 27 Current Approaches to Quality Assurance in the KRI .................................................... 27 Limited Scope of Data Collected .......................................................................... 27 Concern About the Quality of Principal and Teacher Evaluations .................................... 27 Lack of Transparency ........................................................................................ 28 Independent Efforts Under Way to Evaluate and Monitor Schools.................................... 28 Characteristics of Effective School Quality Assurance Systems .......................................... 28 School Performance Indicators ............................................................................. 28 School Performance Targets ................................................................................ 28 Support Structure and Interventions .......................................................................29 School Capacity .............................................................................................. 30 Capacity of the Ministry of Education .................................................................... 30 Proposed School Quality Assurance Framework ............................................................31 School Performance Indicators ..............................................................................33 Implementing School Monitoring ........................................................................... 36 Phase 1: Preparing for Implementation ....................................................................37 Phase 2: Engaging in School Monitoring ................................................................