Parental Participation and School Based Management in Nicaragua: An SES Analysis of Differentiated Parent Participation in School Councils by Income, Education, and Community Crime Rates

Abstract

In Latin America, School-Based Management and decentralization more broadly have emerged as an important tool of educational policy. The presumed benefits of School-Based Management designs depend, in large part, on broad parental participation in the programs that governments create to devolve decision-making related to schooling. However, few studies examine the circumstances under which parents actually participate in newly established decentralized education programs. This article sheds partial light on these conditions by employing a Socio-Economic Status (SES) perspective to examine school-based management reform in Nicaragua. Using data derived from five newly autonomous schools, the study compares parents’ self-reported levels of income, education, and community crime rates with their propensity to participate in newly formed school councils. Results give partial support to an SES hypothesis by revealing that parents who live in communities where violence is endemic participate less in the school councils. Findings support the argument that for decentralized education programs to be successful on equity issues, policy planners must attend to these socio-structural circumstances by providing commensurate support mechanisms that encourage marginal households and communities to participate in the new program.