Conceptualizing and measuring collective action in school management committees: validity and reliability of the CASC scale

Abstract

In spite of the numerous surveys of public goods provision in school management committees (SMCs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), proper conceptualization and measurement of the underlying construct remain a challenge. This study argues that advancement in the survey of public goods in SMCs rests on an appropriate conceptualization and measurement of collective action. This article conceptualizes and measures collective action in school committees using a 10 items instrument, i.e., the CASC scale. The instrument was applied within the framework of a PhD project completed at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Dar es Salaam in 2015. The validity test, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), demonstrates that the eigenvalue of the first factor is larger than the eigenvalue for the next factor (3.2 versus 1.2); and the first and second factors account for 46% of the total variance, indicating that the items of the CASC scale are unidimensional. Similarly, the reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha shows that the coefficient for the 10 items is α = 0.75, which is acceptable and respectable. It is expected that the availability of a CASC scale will inspire surveys of the provision of public goods in SMCs to adopt the relevant theoretical bases of collective action.