Ägarstrukturens påverkan på skolkvalité - En jämförande studie över friskolor före och efter uppköp
Sammanfattning: Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group. Using Professor Lars Östman's principal model the schools' operations are retrospectively compared using the "most similar system" design before and after the acquisitions with regards to factors that have been identified as key determinants of school effectiveness. We have studied key determinants of school effectiveness rather than the academic results. This since acquisitions by larger school groups on a big scale are a relatively recent phenomenon and more time is needed for effects on academic results to be seen. It is found that the key determinants for effective schools are affected in both negative and positive ways. Schools that are part of a larger school group have a harder time uniting the schools around shared visions and goals than those of smaller organizations. It is also found that the support structure for principals is greater in a school group, but that the opportunity to conduct professional leadership is decreased. This is explained by restrictive decrees and goals set forth by the school group at a central level, such as rules regarding procurement. Furthermore a school group has an easier time maintaining a higher focus on education, learning- and pedagogical development for teachers, which is facilitated by the existence of a technostructure. Since the characteristics distinguishing schools with high academic achievements have been affected in both positive and negative ways and since no consistent empirical evidence has been found supporting one particular ownership structure, there is no empirical support for treating the two forms differently within the current Swedish school debate. Rather than discussing ownership structure, the school debate should focus on what we know has an impact on students' academic results - classroom activities and teacher competence.
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