GOVERNANCE, MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE NORWEGIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

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We propose a large research project emphasizing the roles of governance and management of schools. The project covers both compulsory (primary and lower secondary) and non-compulsory (upper secondary) education. The project consists of 4 parts. Part 1 is on governance in compulsory education, and the main purposes are to investigate the implementation and consequences of new modes of governance and management. We will describe the variation in governance systems across municipalities, analyze whether gove rnance and management systems are systematically related to local factors such as income, education, political preferences, and finally investigate whether and how governance systems affect student performance. The purpose of part 2 is to develop performa nce indicators for upper secondary education. For low-performing students the main concern is dropouts and re-election, and the project will investigate gender differences in particular. We will investigate whether and how dropout affects post-school outc omes as employment, income and utilization of social security. Part 3 will analyze how the performance indicators are affected by governance. The indicators will be related to location of schools, the composition of study tracks, and the local school choi ce system. The extent to which the composition of study tracks matches the local industry structure is in particular relevant for the apprenticeship system of the vocational study tracks. Finally, the topic of part 4 is management of schools, both at the compulsory and the non-compulsory level. The main purpose of this part is to investigate how management of schools affects student performance. The analyzes will distinguish between leadership properties, such as formal qualifications, and leadership beha viour.