1. Personal and institutional factors in the assessment of European public policies. The case of education Clara Riba & Anna Cuxart Universitat Pompeu Fabra

2. Introduction The challenges of education in the XXI century The quality of education: indicators Objective: student’s attainment Subjective: survey opinions Indicator used: evaluation of the state of the education (ESS 2002-03)

3. Objective To answer the questions: What is the citizen’s opinion about the quality of the education in their countries? What are the effects of the educative policies in that opinion? How the effects of these policies interact with the individual characteristics?

4. Hypothesis Individual perceptions about education: Sex and age differences Rural and urban differences High educated citizens are more demanding on education Party identification effect

5. Hypothesis Contextual effects. Better evaluations if: High public spending on education Decentralization of education Comprehensive educational system Good working conditions for teachers High socioeconomic and cultural status

6. Method and data Multilevel analysis: Level 1: citizensLevel 2: countries Individual data for 22 countries from ESS Contextual data from OECD (incomplete) Analysis for two different groups of 17 countries

7. The state of education by countries

8. PISA results and ESS opinions

9. Models with interactions (first group of countries)

11. Results. Individual effects Women are more critical than men Educated citizens are more critical than those with only primary education Government satisfaction affects positively the evaluations of education

12. Results. Contextual effects Decentralization of education increases satisfaction Public expending on education affects positively the evaluations of education Comprehensive educational systems increase satisfaction Evaluations are better in countries with high socioeconomic and cultural status

13. Results. Interactions effects Decentralization and public expending reduce the positive effect of government satisfaction on the evaluation of education Public expending reduces the negative effects of high education and sex on the evaluation of education

14. Conclusions Political decisions of governments and socioeconomic and cultural level of countries affect citizens’ perceptions about the quality of education There are interactions of decentralization and public expending with education, sex and government satisfaction that reduce the effects of the individual variables