A "second best" approach, reintroducing educational productivity analyses into school finance reform strategies, may help to promote efficiency in the provision of educational services. The limitations of analysis models and measurement of equity and efficiency are discussed. (Author/CM)

Input-output research has made valuable contributions to our understanding of schools; however it does not provide reliable evidence concerning how school resources should be allocated. Two input-output studies described indicate that the intuitions of experienced school officials should be heeded by researchers when designing input-output…