DT 14/18 - The efficiency of Uruguayan secondary schools: Evidence based on PISA 2015 data

While Uruguayan public education spending is limited so that increasing funding could still improve schooling outcomes, a better use of the current resources could also make a difference. This paper analyses the efficiency performance of a set of public and private schools and explores its main drivers based on PISA-2015 data. Efficiency is estimated by using PISA marks adjusted by the student socioeconomic condition as outputs in a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and it is regressed on a set of explanatory variables by applying bootstrapped truncated regressions. Results show high inefficiencies for the average Uruguayan school with a considerable dispersion in the efficiency attainments. Efficiency gains are associated to school size, location, private management and the presence of non-teaching staff.