Learning Capital The Economic Idea and Causes of School Quality

by Scott, Gary

• ISBN13: 9780761804901
• ISBN10: 0761804900
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-11-21
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

In this book, the relative contributions of a school and a pupil in producing cognitive achievement growth are theoretically isolated so that the efficiency of a school can be evaluated more objectively. Using educational psychology and the neo-classical, economic method of constrained optimization, it is argued that a school is responsible for supplying a pupil with a high learning rate while the pupil's contribution is measured by time-on-task or attention to a lesson. Two surprising inferences are drawn from this model of school quality. The most interesting result is that producing equality of achievement outcomes among pupils increases a school's ability to offer a maximum average learning rate given any level of expenditures which contradicts present theory. A further implication is that the presumed market failure does not exist since private schools are found to be more equal than state schools. Both of these ideas are empirically supported using the High School and Beyond Data. Incorporating these results into an analysis of a voucher policy suggests that efficiency can be increased by 15% and equality of cognitive achievement by 28% without forfeiting any integration within all schools.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vii
List of Figures	ix
The Common School Philosophy	1	(30)
The Public School Crisis	2	(2)
Policy Options	4	(1)
Can Higher Cognitive Achievement be Purchased?	5	(4)
Do Private Schools Perform Better?	9	(4)
Educational Nihilism	13	(10)
Thesis Statement	23	(3)
Articles of Peace	26	(5)
Tutorial Model of Education	31	(8)
Production Function	31	(2)
Market Exchange in the Tutorial Model	33	(1)
Evaluating the School	34	(5)
Classroom Model of Education	39	(18)
The Theory of Instructional Error	39	(7)
Pareto Optimal Instruction	46	(2)
Ability Tracking	48	(9)
Implications of the Theory of Learning Capital	57	(20)
The Elusive Goal of Equality of Opportunity	61	(1)
The Elements of School Efficiency	62	(6)
Selection Efficiency	68	(1)
Dynamic Efficiency	69	(2)
Tension Within the Common School Philosophy	71	(6)
An Empirical Test of the Theory of Learning Capital	77	(48)
Data Set	78	(1)
Regression Model	79	(13)
Weaknesses of the Data	92	(3)
Bias Toward the Null Hypotheses	95	(2)
Who Produces More Equality?	97	(1)
Regression Results	98	(15)
Statistical Versus Policy Significance	113	(2)
Costs of Lowering σ	115	(1)
Costs of Lowering Δσ	116	(9)
The Efficiency-Diversity Tradeoff	125	(18)
The Determinants of σ	128	(4)
The Determinants of Δσ	132	(4)
Where are the Superior Common Schools Found?	136	(7)
School Excellence: A Purely Rational Pursuit of Efficiency?	143	(12)
Aptitude Drift Hypothesis	144	(2)
Unintentional Student Sorting	146	(1)
The Possibility of Losing Your Friends	147	(1)
Profit-Maximization and Christian Philosophy	147	(8)
Summary of the Determinants for Common School Excellence	155	(10)
A Superior Common School Policy: Vouchers	165	(4)
Conclusion	169	(26)
Smarter Graduates	169	(2)
More Equality Within and Between Schools	171	(2)
Upward Mobility?	173	(3)
More Money For Education	176	(1)
Dissipating the Costs of Integration	177	(1)
Teacher Labor Market	178	(2)
Obfuscating the School Question	180	(6)
Weaknesses of the Theory of Learning Capital	186	(2)
Educators and Economists	188	(7)
Bibliography	195	(10)
Index	205