This paper discusses the limitations and risks associated with the use of output-oriented measures to assess public school performance. In particular, it questions the capability of the performance measures set by external institutions, with respect to schools, to support sustainable educational outcomes. To this end, the ‘street-level bureaucracy’ theory is used in the paper as a basis to analyse the behavioural distortions generated by perceived public service gaps at school level policy implementation. Such unintended behavioural effects are often a major cause of disappointing outcomes when test-based accountability systems are adopted. In the second part of the paper, an insight model referred to a hypothetic medium-sized public school located in a poor area in Colombia is used to illustrate how a feedback approach to school performance measurement can support decision-makers to pursue sustainable education outcomes and to prevent behavioural distortions from perceived public service gaps at ‘street-level’ policy implementation. This analysis outlines an alternative approach to school performance measurement that might help policy makers in extending the domain of governmental benchmarks to performance measures and collaborative efforts that reflect the challenges of holistic education in the context where public schools are located.

中文翻译：

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对“街道层面”政策实施中感知到的公共服务差距的行为扭曲的反馈观点：公立学校意外结果的案例

本文讨论了与使用以产出为导向的措施来评估公立学校绩效相关的局限性和风险。特别是，它质疑外部机构制定的关于学校的绩效衡量标准是否有能力支持可持续的教育成果。为此，本文以“街道级官僚主义”理论为基础，分析了在学校一级政策实施中感知到的公共服务差距所产生的行为扭曲。当采用基于测试的问责制系统时，这种意外的行为影响通常是导致结果令人失望的主要原因。在论文的第二部分，一个关于位于哥伦比亚贫困地区的假设中型公立学校的洞察模型被用来说明学校绩效衡量的反馈方法如何支持决策者追求可持续的教育成果并防止感知公共服务的行为扭曲“街道层面”政策实施的差距。该分析概述了学校绩效衡量的另一种方法，该方法可能有助于政策制定者将政府基准范围扩展到绩效衡量和合作努力，以反映公立学校所在环境下全人教育的挑战。