February 16, 2017
Since June 2016, Root Change has collaborated with the Aga Khan Foundation’s SESEA program in Kwale County, Kenya, to explore how interactions between school actors and external support agencies influence student and school achievement. This initiative aims to uncover the role of social capital in educational success and inform future strategies for the SESEA program.
A key assumption of the program is that high-functioning schools build resiliency by investing in social capital both internally, among school actors, and externally with teachers and educational partners. Internal social capital helps schools attract and retain talented personnel, while external social capital enables schools to form productive alliances with supporters, educational service providers, policy-makers, sister schools, and community members. Root Change hypothesized that schools with extensive social capital are more likely to have committed teaching staff, donors, volunteers, and parents, which can lead to other essential forms of capital (financial, human, and political) and ultimately translate into higher student achievement.
Root Change conducted a two-phase study involving 36 schools in Kwale County. Data was collected through enumerators identified by the AKF team, with virtual training and support provided by Root Change from Washington, DC. Root Change examined collaborative ties between head teachers, deputy head teachers, senior teachers, Boards of Management (BOM), and student parliaments, as well as the degree to which external ties were linked to higher performance. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) was used as a proxy for the quality of relationships.
The analysis revealed that active networking alone is not significantly linked to higher school performance, explaining only up to 10 percent of school performance. While this supports the practice of active networking is an important success factor, it is not strong enough to propose networking metrics as a sentinel indicator for school performance. Additionally, collaboration patterns of both high and low-performing schools appear not to be dictated by school reputation or performance. Schools tend to affiliate with others like themselves, often guided by geographic location, political connections, and social engagements, rather than reputation or performance.
The final report underscores the need to promote a meritocracy, enabling rising schools to lead and influence the local education system. These insights will guide partnership strategies for future projects that aim to enhance educational outcomes in Kwale County.
