Modelling The Variables That Influence The School Performance In The Madrid Municipalities

The evaluation of the school performance is a very important strategic field due to the great amount of public and private resources invested by the society in the non-university education. State and regional governments undergo several tests and surveys which try to measure the levels of learning attained by their students. While there is a rich literature on the main inputs that explain the school performance at the State level, the concrete determinants at the municipality level –as immigration and the local budget in education– have not been widely addressed. In this respect, the Autonomous Community of Madrid (ACM) can be an excellent frame to analyze these factors. To illustrate these ideas, this paper estimates a cross-section data model using the results of the specific test developed by the ACM in the academic course 2007-08. Our crosssectional dataset includes 617 schools in 130 municipalities in the surrounding area of Madrid, using data at municipal and school levels.