This report is the culmination of a yearlong effort to study the efficiency of the nation's public education system and includes the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country. In the business world, the notion of productivity describes the benefit received in exchange for effort or money…

This is a preliminary report of a project which has as its goal the construction of a mathematical model representing the interrelationships among certain categories of phenomena of the secondary school. These phenomena are classified as being either administratively uncontrollable input, administratively controllable input, or output…

Five sister reports published by the Friedman Foundation over the past two years have ignored the relevant research literature in asserting that private-school voucher programs can reduce the social costs of dropping out while increasing graduation rates. The reports are state-specific, targeting five different states. But each report follows a…

A constant partial elasticity of substitution production function for academic achievement is presented and estimated with nonlinear maximum likelihood methods. We find that ability and time devoted to various aspects of the learning process are the most important determinants of students' accomplishments. (Author/CTM)

Begins with a discussion of cost and efficiency in education. Presents an empirical model to estimate school-level economies of scale. Applies model to expenditure data set by school from 17 Wyoming school districts. Finds that it costs more per student in a small school than in large schools to achieve similar educational outcomes, thus…

A model of cost-effectiveness is outlined which enables consideration of some non-financial, as well as financial, elements of educational systems at school or district levels. The model enables the decision-maker to compare educational outcomes of different units, to assess the impact of alternative levels of financial input, and to select…

The relationship of fiscal effort to eighth-grade achievement on international assessments was compared among U.S. states, for U.S. states versus foreign countries, and for the United States versus foreign countries. U.S. performance was as expected, given its relative fiscal effort, and several states were as efficient as top-performing foreign…

Describes a conceptual framework for cost-effectiveness analysis that attempts to determine the relative impact of the different input variables on the output measures. Applies the model to a school district. (Author/JM)

This monograph summarizes and evaluates "educational production function analyses"--studies of the relation between inputs and outputs in an education system--in order to aid in educational manpower policy making. In addition, data from New York state school districts and from a large national sample of high school students is subjected to…

The United States currently spends a good deal more on education per student than most industrialized nations, yet testing shows that achievement has not kept pace with spending. Nevertheless, school administrators continue to press for greater federal spending and claim that reforms cannot be implemented otherwise.

The movement toward school consolidation was triggered by James Bryant Conant's contention that larger schools are more efficient and offer more comprehensive programs. Many studies seem to support the claim that larger schools are cheaper to operate. Yet problems with these studies include wide variation in the minimum, optimum, and maximum sizes…

Is the money allocated to institutional distance education getting the results on the back end in terms of student achievement? A literature review of cost analysis studies on distance education is presented with three themes factored out from those studies: Costs (Institutional and student costs), Reach, and Richness (cost to the student). A…

Eighth grade students, randomly assigned to three criterion performance levels, studied matrix algebra in three programed lessons. Student achievement, ability, time spent, and other measures were obtained; and minimal variance criterion performance levels, analogous to production isoquants, were attained. A Cobb-Douglas (log-linear) function was…

The relationship between the costs of schooling and the size of school districts is discussed. The first section of this paper provides a critical survey of what economists have written about economies of scale and questions whether bigger is really cheaper or more efficient, as is generally found in commercial endeavors. The second section…

Cost, resource utilization, and productivity were studied in 41 elementary schools using Individually Guided Education (IGE) and in 15 matched pairs of IGE and non-IGE schools. Instructional expenditures in IGE and non-IGE schools did not differ significantly. However, IGE teachers devoted significantly more time to individual instruction. A…