Non-Cognitive Skills and Cognitive Skills to measure school efficiency

We propose a new approach with which to measure school efficiency by including student Non-Cognitive Skills in the analysis. In classical analysis, efficiency is measured separately from effectiveness. In our framework, we jointly consider efficiency and effectiveness, including both Cognitive Skills and Non-Cognitive Skills. We call our approach “Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and we propose two analyses. The first is called “Static Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and measures the efficiency of transforming Non-Cognitive Skills into Cognitive Skills, by means of a Stochastic Frontier Approach. We verify that some Non-Cognitive Skills have effect on Cognitive Skills and contribute to increase school efficiency. The second is defined “Dynamic Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and measures the efficiency of school educational programmes aimed at improving Non-Cognitive Skills. The statistical method is a Difference-in-Differences model based on a Stochastic Frontier Approach. We find that these educational programmes (treatment) have a positive effect on Non-Cognitive Skills. The survey concerns 8th grade students attending 25 schools in the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, in Italy. The dataset comprises both survey data and the administrative data of local authorities, thus providing a complete set of information at student level on CS and NCS skills, social capital variables, in particular the socioeconomic background of families, and teaching parameters. We measure school efficiency at class level, because this level is less affected by unobserved environmental factors. The results provide new perspectives on education in schools.