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The Failure of Input-Based Schooling Policies
- ECONOMIC JOURNAL
, 2003
"... In an effort to improve the quality of schools, governments around the world have dramatically increased the resources devoted to them. By concentrating on inputs and ignoring the incentives within schools, the resources have yielded little in the way of general improvement in student achievement. T ..."
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Cited by 181 (16 self)
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In an effort to improve the quality of schools, governments around the world have dramatically increased the resources devoted to them. By concentrating on inputs and ignoring the incentives within schools, the resources have yielded little in the way of general improvement in student achievement. This paper provides a review of the US and international evidence on the effectiveness of such input policies. It then contrasts the impact of resources with that of variations in teacher quality that are not systematically related to school resources. Finally, alternative performance incentive policies are described. Academic and policy interest in improving schools has followed directly from recognition of the importance of human capital formation to both individuals and society. Much of the motivation comes from theoretical and empirical analyses of the relationship between income, productivity, and economic growth and the quantity of schooling of individuals – the most common proxy for human capital levels. For the most part, however, policy initiatives do not focus on the quantity of schooling but instead on the quality of schooling. It is here that controversy about research into the determinants of quality has led to ambiguities about policy. This discussion reviews basic evidence on student performance and puts it into the context of contemporary policy debates. The central conclusion is that the commonly used input policies – such as lowering class sizes or tightening the requirements for teaching credentials – are almost certainly inferior to altered incentives within the schools. The general arguments about schooling in the US and elsewhere in the world have a simple structure. First, the high returns to additional schooling are noted. In the US these returns have grown dramatically over the past 20 years, particularly for a college education. During the 1990s, for example, an average college graduate earned in excess of a 70 % premium above the average high school graduate, e.g., Pierce and Welch (1996). Schooling returns in other countries,
Economic considerations and class size
- Economic Journal
, 2003
"... This paper examines evidence on the effect of class size on student achievement. First, it is shown that results of quantitative summaries of the literature, such as Hanushek (1997), depend critically on whether studies are accorded equal weight. When studies are given equal weight, resources are sy ..."
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Cited by 119 (1 self)
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This paper examines evidence on the effect of class size on student achievement. First, it is shown that results of quantitative summaries of the literature, such as Hanushek (1997), depend critically on whether studies are accorded equal weight. When studies are given equal weight, resources are systematically related to student achievement. When weights are in pro-portion to their number of estimates, resources and achievements are not systematically re-lated. Second, a cost-benefit analysis of class size reduction is performed. Results of the Tennessee STAR class-size experiment suggest that the internal rate of return from reducing class size from 22 to 15 students is around 6%. Apart from the opportunity cost of students ’ time, the number of teachers hired per student is the main determinant of the economic cost of education. Looking across school districts in Texas, for example, variability in the pupil-teacher ratio accounts for two-thirds of the variability in expenditures per student.1 If reducing class size does not increase student achievement, then variations in overall spending per pupil are unlikely to matter either because the pupil-teacher is such an important determinant of overall spending.
Do Higher Salaries Buy Better Teachers?” (Retrieved on April 25, 2002 at: http://edpro.stanford.edu/eah/eah.htm
- USA Today. Available: http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000928/2697303s.htm Johnson, T., Della
, 1999
"... Do higher salaries raise the quality of teaching? Many influential reports and proposals advocate substantial salary increases as a means of attracting and retaining more talented teachers in the public schools and of encouraging harder work by current teachers. Salary policies have also been cited ..."
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Cited by 65 (0 self)
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Do higher salaries raise the quality of teaching? Many influential reports and proposals advocate substantial salary increases as a means of attracting and retaining more talented teachers in the public schools and of encouraging harder work by current teachers. Salary policies have also been cited as important for offsetting changes in demands outside of schools and for dealing with the potentially unattractive working conditions often identified in central city schools. The empirical evidence on the link between teacher quality and pay is, however, decidedly mixed— raising doubts that there is a strong relationship between the two. Direct analyses of student achievement, for example, provide limited evidence of any systematic relationship. Two explanations have emerged in response to this evidence. On the one hand, some argue that the true relationship between teacher quality and salaries is quite strong, but methodological and data problems have impeded the identification of salary effects. Others take a less sanguine position, arguing that the evidence captures accurately the weak performance incentives in the public schools that lead administrators to make hiring and retention decisions that are not strongly linked with teacher quality. 1 The evidence is quite strong on one point: teacher quality is an important determinant of achievement (e.g., Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain 1998). There are four main methodological problems that impede the estimation of the true relationship
Would Smaller Classes Help Close the Black-White Achievement Gap?
, 2001
"... This paper was prepared for a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institute and Edison Schools, Inc. entitled, "Closing the Gap: Promising Approaches to Reducing the Achievement Gap." We thank Pat Turri and Jayne Zaharias for providing data, and David Card and Jens Ludwig for helpful d ..."
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Cited by 60 (11 self)
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This paper was prepared for a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institute and Edison Schools, Inc. entitled, "Closing the Gap: Promising Approaches to Reducing the Achievement Gap." We thank Pat Turri and Jayne Zaharias for providing data, and David Card and Jens Ludwig for helpful discussions; they are not responsible for any mistakes we may have made. Would Smaller Classes Help Close the Black-White Achievement Gap? Executive Summary This paper examines the effect of reducing class-size on student achievement, with particular attention to differential effects by race. A review of the literature suggests that low-income and black students tend to benefit more from attending a smaller class than white students. We extend the literature by providing new results from a long-term follow-up of students who participated in Tennessee's Project STAR. Project STAR was an experiment that randomly assigned 11,600 elementary school students and their teachers to a small c
Everybody’s doing it, but what does teacher testing tell us about teacher effectiveness
- Journal of Human Resources
, 2007
"... ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that ..."
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Cited by 51 (8 self)
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ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher: some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher workforce based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on these tests, while other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible.
Inequality: Too Much of a Good Thing
- In
, 2002
"... As the title of this essay suggests, I believe there are both positive and negative effects of inequality. On the positive side, differential rewards provide incentives for individuals to work hard, invest and innovate. On the negative side, differences in rewards that are unrelated to productivity ..."
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Cited by 40 (1 self)
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As the title of this essay suggests, I believe there are both positive and negative effects of inequality. On the positive side, differential rewards provide incentives for individuals to work hard, invest and innovate. On the negative side, differences in rewards that are unrelated to productivity – due to racial discrimination, for example – are corrosive to civil society and cause resources to be misallocated. Even if discrimination did not exist, however, income inequality would be problematic in a democratic society if those who are privileged use their economic muscle to curry favor in the political arena and thereby secure monopoly rents or other advantages. Moreover, for several reasons discussed in the next section, poverty and income inequality create negative externalities. Consequently, it can be in the interest of the wealthy as well as the poor to raise the incomes of the poor, especially by using education and training as a means for redistribution. The term inequality is often used rather loosely, and can be a lightning rod. 2 Some have argued that only extreme poverty is a concern. Others have argued that the gap in income
Efficiency and equity in schools around the world
- Economics of Education Review
, 2003
"... Abstract Attention to the quality of human capital in different countries naturally leads to concerns about how school policies relate to student performance. The data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provide a way of comparing performance in different schooling sy ..."
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Cited by 37 (1 self)
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Abstract Attention to the quality of human capital in different countries naturally leads to concerns about how school policies relate to student performance. The data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provide a way of comparing performance in different schooling systems. The results of analyses of educational production functions within a range of developed and developing countries show general problems with the efficiency of resource usage similar to those found previously in the United States. These effects do not appear to be dictated by variations related to income level of the country or level of resources in the schools. Neither do they appear to be determined by school policies that involve compensatory application of resources. The conventional view that school resources are relatively more important in poor countries also fails to be supported.
Decentralization and the Productive Efficiency of Government: Evidence from Swiss Cantons
, 2005
"... Advocates of fiscal decentralization argue that amongst other benefits, it can increase the productive efficiency of delivery of government services. This paper is one of the first to evaluate this claim empirically by looking at the association between expenditure decentralization and the productiv ..."
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Cited by 34 (0 self)
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Advocates of fiscal decentralization argue that amongst other benefits, it can increase the productive efficiency of delivery of government services. This paper is one of the first to evaluate this claim empirically by looking at the association between expenditure decentralization and the productive efficiency of government using a data-set of Swiss cantons. We first provide careful evidence that expenditure decentralization is a powerful proxy for factual local autonomy. Further panel regressions of Swiss cantons provide robust evidence that more decentralization is associated with higher educational attainment. We also show that these gains lead to no adverse effects across education types but that male students benefited more from educational decentralization closing, for the Swiss case, the gender education gap. Finally, we present evidence of the importance of competence in government and how it can reinforce the gains from decentralization.
Why students drop out of school and what can be done. Paper presented at conference on Dropouts in America: How Severe is the Problem? What Do We Know about Intervention and Prevention
- Harvard University
, 2001
"... This paper examines why students drop out of school and what can be done about it. After briefly summarizing who drops out of school, the paper reviews the theoretical and empirical research that attempts to explain why students drop out of school based on two different conceptual frameworks that ar ..."
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Cited by 32 (0 self)
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This paper examines why students drop out of school and what can be done about it. After briefly summarizing who drops out of school, the paper reviews the theoretical and empirical research that attempts to explain why students drop out of school based on two different conceptual frameworks that are both useful and necessary to understand this complex phenomenon. One framework is based on an individual perspective that focuses on individual factors associated with dropping out; the other is based on an institutional perspective that focuses on the contextual factors found in students ’ families, schools, communities and peers. The paper also discusses the extent to which these frameworks can be used explain differences in dropout rates among social groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities. The next section of the paper examines various strategies to address the dropout, reviewing examples of both programmatic and systemic solutions, and the extent to which policy can promote them. The final section of the paper discusses whether the United States has the capacity and the will to reduce dropout rates and eliminate disparities in dropout rates among racial and ethnic groups. Despite a long-term upward trend in school completion in the United States, each year
