education-economics

Based upon a December 2000 conference sponsored by the Laboratory of School Success in Washington D.C., this edited volume offers 10 different papers on the economics of education productivity. The conference, and the commissioned papers that resulted from it, set out to bridge the communication divide that often exists between educators, policy practitioners, and even academics in the traditional field of education, and the new generation of economists that have devoted their research careers to studying the production of education. Authors were specifically directed to write in a manner that would convey important economic findings on education productivity at a level that would be useful for crafting real world policies on the issue. Most of the articles are summaries of the literature in a specific subfield of the economics of education productivity. After reading the volume, I am pleased to proclaim that the vast majority of the articles contained within it have achieved the laudable goal of producing an accessible summary that offers many "nuggets" of policy and administrative relevance. I highlight these nuggets in the following review.
The first three chapters (or papers) in this volume examine external influences on the production of primary and secondary education. The next four chapters single out an internal factor that exerts a principal influence on the production of K-12 education in the United States. The remaining three chapters offer an understanding of how economists think about education production functions.
The external influences on K-12 education production in the United States covered in this volume include state and local limitations on taxes to support public schools, the effect of litigation on the use of state revenues to support public schools, and the impact that private school competition has had on the production of public education. Thomas Downes and David Figlio conclude that just reducing the amount of revenue available to public schools does little to reduce waste in the production of education and may have the opposite effect. As an example, teacher's unions usually respond by cutting starting salaries, but rarely reduce the salaries of experienced teachers. Sheila Murray summarizes the impact of three decades of attempting to achieve funding equity in America's public schools and proclaims these attempts successful. She notes that student achievement in previously high-spending districts has not been greatly harmed by this redistribution. Dan Goldhaber offers a straightforward summary of the theory and evidence previously generated by economists on the impact of the availability of private school alternatives to the production of public education. Regretfully, he concludes that this previous research does not offer enough information to fully determine the likely consequences of the United States implementing a widespread policy of allowing vouchers.
The internal factors, covered in this volume, that affect school productivity include grade-retention policies, teacher resources, and site specific ways of measuring productivity and resource allocation. Eric Eide suggests that the decision to promote or retain a student would be better made if both parents and educators were forced to bear the full benefits and costs their decisions. Susanna Loeb offers evidence on the sizable degree that public schools differ in the average characteristics of their teachers and how these differences are related to the fact that "quality" teachers prefer schools with students of high socio-economic backgrounds. To overcome this, and the result that high socio-economic students receive higher quality educations, she suggests higher salaries and other perks to attract quality teachers to schools with low socio-economic students. Amy Schwart and Leanna Stiefel summarize the various ways in which economists measure the efficacy of K-12 school production and offers suggestions to policymakers such that school level data is preferred to district level and that multiple measures are favored to a single measure. While Ross Rubenstein and Patrice Latarola use data from the New York public schools to conclude, perhaps because of limited flexibility in allocation decisions, that expenditures on specific items at a school site tend to be very similar across school sites - even the high and low performing - in this district.
The last three papers in this volume deal with the broad issue of whether money matters to the production of quality K-12 education. Corrine Taylor provides a highly readable summary of reasons for the opposite sides taken on this issue. Using her own data, she offers convincing evidence that school resources do matter. Samid Hussain continues this important discussion by offering original research that finds that money matters more too low-performing schools and suggests that policymakers design interventions that keep this in mind. Finally, Jens Ludwig offers a summary of the statistical techniques that researchers need to employ to overcome the self-selection problem of children with strong family backgrounds choosing high-spending schools and thus making it difficult to determine that money does matter to quality education production.
Of most relevance to overcoming the divide that exists between education economists and education practitioners is the concluding chapter. In this chapter the editors summarize the interdisciplinary discussions that occurred after each paper was presented. After readings these summaries it is easy to conclude that the work of education economists has had an impact. From their recorded comments, practitioners believe that accountability in education production is important and that markets need to weigh more heavily in education resource allocation. But these same practitioners stress that in order for economists to maximize their contributions toward current federal, state, and local efforts to improve public school production, they must integrate their economic theories and statistical tests into a more holistic approach that includes what sister social sciences like anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science have to offer. Volumes like this one, and the conference it was drawn from, are the steps necessary to achieve this goal.

Robert W. Wassmer
California State University
Sacramento, CA 95819-6081, USA

E-mail address: rwassme@csus.edu

Very practical book, with full-detailed examples, but lacks in theoretical analysis.

This is definitely a very useful book especially for college students looking for summer internships. It is very comprehensive, but many of the internships are very competitive and if they are in the book thousands of other people are reading about them too. Still, the book has opportunities across the country as well as some internationally. I would definitely use it as one of several resources in an internship search and it is a very good starting place.

Dr. Joel Springs book the Intersection of Cultures is a good academic resource for the study of multiculturalism in education. The book provides an impressive overview of the impact culture has on every social, economic, educational and interpersonal interaction. His prose is simple, direct, and informative with a style of posing questions that encourages the student to consider multiculturalism in a self-reflective framework. I highly recommend the book as a primer on multiculturalism. The books weakness is also it's strength in that it is short and presents complex concepts in simple terms. The result is that it provides merely a summary of each concept rather than an in-depth exploration. The book is filled with interesting examples of the lives of the diverse cultures living in the United States in an engaging and accessible style.

This is the perfect book for you if you know nothing about business and you want to learn the basics. I had to read it four times from cover to cover for a test, but I kept on finding new information each time I read it. Unfortunately, this edition has some outdated information about computers and credit card processing, but the rest of the book is pretty accurate. If you want to learn more about consumers, the government's role in the economy, and financial institutions, I would suggest using this as your basic reference book. It doesn't use complex language or strange jargon to explain things - it's perfect for the school or the office. There's lots of colorful graphs and pictures that really helped me understand the concepts presented.

This is a great book for those just starting in the retail feild. I use this book to train all employees in my company about our product. It is easy to follow and has an good index. The topics range from textiles to jewelry to furniture and fine dinnerware. This book would also be great for consumers who want to insure they always buy the best quality merchandise. Don't let the price scare you--this book is worth every penny.

Although at times wordy and dense, this book should be vital reading for anyone concerned with education, politics and economic growth in the late 1990's. Although focussing on particulr issues in the UK, the critiques made here are as relevant for all post-industrial societies in which education is at once controlled by a managerial agenda while leaving its co-ordination to a so-called rational market. While celebrating individual agency, it disputes both the rational individualist and deterministic views of human behaviour, re-defining choice in terms of social networks. It is radical rather than liberal, while recognizing the need for investment in education as an economic resource it also proposes deeper reforms which support education for citzenship, and the challenges of globalization

If you have anything to do with e-learning, your new "must-have" library should include Leading E-Learning and the other books in the ASTD E-Learning Series. Whether you are a chief learning officer, training manager, or instructional designer, this set of books will guide you through all phases of planning, development and evaluation. The series includes:
* Leading e-Learning, by William Horton, starts as the series' primer, defining the different types of e-learning, it's benefits, the importance of standards, and how to put together a team.
* Selling e-Learning, by Darin Hartley, provides a roadmap for gaining organizational support for e-learning initiatives, conducting a cost-benefit analysis, and how to build a formal case presentation.
* Evaluating e-Learning, by William Horton, shows the value of formal evaluations and explains in simple language how to apply the 4-level Kirkpatrick model to e-learning projects.
* Using e-Learning, by William Horton, illustrates how training departments can evolve into profit centers as e-learning improves operations and sales, while making performance improvement programs available to more people.

The ASTD e-Learning series is designed for action. Each book weighs in at very readable 100 - 150 pages. In addition to self-check exercises, each volume includes ample worksheets, case studies, online calculators, visual models, and lists of resources.

by Kevin Kruse
Founder, e-LearningGuru com
Author, Technology-based Training (Jossey-Bass)

This book is a must read for all educational or business leaders. Barth's wit and stories make this book an enjoyable quick read. Personable and telling, his timeless wisdom and experience combine to create a book you'll want to consult time and again.

In an age when educational success is measured solely by "high-stakes testing", Roland Barth helps leaders keep centered on what really matters-people. Written primarily for educational leaders, business leaders will find this book helpful too.

This is a book about transforming and maintaining a nurturing and productive workplace, be it the classroom or boardroom. Much of the hype in leadership literature today hinges on acquiring new strategies or adopting new methodology. Lessons Learned is different. The advice offered to leaders in this book is practical and unchanging-focusing on developing quality relationships in the workplace.

Barth's use of anecdotes and his command of language is riveting. The book's twenty-four short chapters can easily be read in several hours, but you'll spend a lifetime practicing the wisdom offered by this sailor and educator. If you only read one book this year, make it this one!

This book consists of 12 well-written accounts by various authors about successful library services and programs for children and youth. The authors of each of the articles provide facts and examples of the differences that libraries have made for the people in the areas they serve. Read this book for two reasons: for the examples of positive contributions to cite whenever libraries and their services are being labeled as ineffective, and to be reminded why librarians do what we do for children and youth to make a difference.