ECON 8310E

COURSE OUTLINE:

1.      Introduction: Is there a problem with public schools, and what is it?

National Commission on Excellence in Education. 1983. A Nation at Risk: The Imperative of Educational Reform. Washington, DC: U. S. GPO.

 

Herbert Walberg. 1998. "Uncompetitive American Schools: Causes and Cures.” (and comments) D. Ravitch (ed.) Brookings Papers on Education Policy 1998. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution., pp 173-206.

 

Alan Krueger. 1998. "Reassessing the View that American Schools are Broken. " FRBNY Economic Policy Review," pp. 29-43.

 

Education Week. January 8, 1998. Introduction to: The Urban Challenge: Public Education in the 50 States. (The series articles in the issue are a good concise review of problems with urban education in America.  Education Week can be found on Galileo at Professional Development Collection.)

 

Jay Greene and Marcus Winter. 2002. "Public School Graduation Rates in the United States." The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

 

2.      The benefits of education and the non-school determinants of student performance:

 

Elchanan Cohn and Terry Geske. 1990. The Economics of Education. New York: Pergamon Press, Chapter 3, pp. 34-47 only.

 

Barbara Wolfe and Samuel Zuvekas. 1995. "Nonmarket Outcomes of Schooling." Institute for Research on Poverty, Discussion Paper no. 1065-95.

 

Robert Haveman and Barbara Wolfe. 1994. Succeeding Generations. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, Chapters 1-2.

 

3.      Policy Analysis and Education: Modelling the problem using education production functions

 

David Weimer and Aidan Vining. 1992. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice. Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Chapter 8.

 

Elchanan Cohn and Terry Geske. 1990. The Economics of Education, Chapter 7 (pp. 159-202).

 

Robert Haveman and Barbara Wolfe. 1994. Succeeding Generations: On the Effects of Investments in Children. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, Chapter 3, "A Tour of Research Studies.”

 

4.      Does Money Matter? The effects of school resources on student achievement:

Eric Hanushek. "School Resources and Student Performance." In Gary Burtless (ed.), Does Money Matter, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, pp. 43-73.

 

Richard Murnane and Frank Levy. 1996. “Evidence from Fifteen Schools in Austin, Texas,” in Gary Burtless (ed.), Does Money Matter, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press, pp. 93-96.

 

Rob Greenwald, Larry Hedges, and Richard Lane. "When Reinventing the Wheel is Not Necessary: A Case Study in Use of Meta-Analysis in Education Finance. " Journal of Education Finance. 20: l-20.

 

Deborah Verstegen and Richard King. 1998. "The Relationship between School Spending and Student Achievement: A Review and Analysis of 35 Years of Production Function Research." Journal of Education Finance 24(Fall): 243-262.

 

Ronald Ferguson and Helen Ladd. 1996. ”How and Why Money Matters,” in Ladd (ed.) Holding Schools Accountable. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Chapter 8.

 

5.      Educational Costs and Economies of Size:

Edward Muir. 2000-01 "Smaller Schools: How Much More Than a Fad?" American Educator. Winter 2000-2001, pp. 40-46.

 

Cohn and Geske, pp. 202-207 (see Seminar 3)

 

William Duncombe, John Yinger. 1999 "Performance Standards and Educational Cost Indexes: You Can 't One Without the Other. " In H. Ladd and R. Chalk and J. Hansen, Equity and Adequacy In Education Finance: Issues and Perspectives. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Read pages 260-282.

 

Matthew Andrews, William Duncombe, John Yinger. 2002. "Revisiting Economies of Size in American Education: Are We Any Closer to a Consensus ?" Economics of Education Review 2, 1: 245-262.

 

Valerie Lee, Becky Smerdon, Corinne Alfeld-Liro, Shelly Brown. 1997. "Inside Large and Small High Schools: Curriculum and Social Relations. " Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 22 (Fall): 147-171.

 

Valerie Lee, and Julia Smith. 1997. "High School Size: Which Works Best and for Whom?" Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 19 (Fall): 205-227.

 

6.             Educational Equity and the Role of the Courts:

Robert Berne and Leanna Stiefel. 1984 The Measurement of Equity in School Finance. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Chapter 2, pp. 1-20.

 

William Clune. 1994. “The Shift from Equity to Adequacy in School Finance.” Educational Policy 8 (December): 376-394.

 

Allan Odden and Lawrence Picus. 1992. School Finance: A Policy Perspective. New York: McGraw-Hill, Chapter 2.

 

William Evans, Sheila Murray, and Robert Schwab. 1997. "Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses After Serrano." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 16 (Winter): 10-31.

 

7.      School Finance - State aid to school districts:

         

Kern Alexander and Richard Salmon. 1995. Public School Finance. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Chapter 9.

       

Steven Gold, David Smith and Stephen Lawton. "Overview of Approaches to School Funding." In Public School Finance Programs of the United States and Canada, 1993-94.

 

William Duncombe and John Yinger. 1998. “School Finance Reform: Aid Formulas and Equity Objectives.”  National Tax Journal. 51 (June): 239-262.

 

8.             Education Research and Program Evaluation:

Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon and Lynn Lyons Morris, How To Design a Program Evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, Chapters l-4.

 

Jens Ludwig. 2001. "Problems in the Estimation of School Effects: Insights from Improved Models." In David Monk, Herbert Walberg, and Margaret Wang (eds.)2001. Improving Educational Productivity. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

 

Lois-Lynn Stoyko Deuel. 1999. "Block Scheduling in Large, Urban High Schools: Effects on Academic Achievement, Student Behavior, and Staff Perceptions.” High School Journal volume 83.

 

Jennifer King Rice, Robert Croninger, and Christopher Roelke. 2002. "The Effect of Block Scheduling High School Mathematics Courses on Student Achievement and Teacher 's Use of Time: Implications for Educational Productivity. Economics of Education Review 21: 599-607.

 

    9.   Traditional Approaches to Improving Public Schools: Class Size Reduction

           

Jeremy Finn and Charles Achilles. 1999. "Tennessee 's Class Size Study: Findings, Implications, Misconceptions. " Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 21 (Summer): 97-109.

 

Eric Hanushek. 1999. "Some Findings From an Independent Investigation of the Tennessee STAR Experiment and from Other Investigations of Class Size Effects. " Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 21 (Summer): 143-163.

 

Alan Krueger. 2000. "Economic Considerations and Class Size. " Working Paper #447, Princeton University Industrial Relations Section.

 

Alan Krueger and Diane Whitmore. 2000. "The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the

Early Grades on College-Test Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project

STAR." National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 7656. Cambridge, MA: NBER.

 

10.         School Governance and School-Based Management:

Education Week. 1999. "Who 's In Charge ". November 17, pp. 27-41.

 

Education Week. 2000. "British 'Heads' Reign with Broad Power." September 20,1,14-17.

 

Richard Elmore. 1995. "Structural Reform and Educational Practice. " Educational Researcher. December: pp. 23-26.

 

David Tyack. 1993. "School Governance in the United States: Historical Puzzles and Anomalies." in J Hannaway and M. Carnoy (eds.) Decentralization and School Improvement, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Rodney Ogawa and Paula White. 1994. "School-Based Management: An Overview." S. Mohrman, and P. Wohlstetter (eds.)School-Based Management: Organizing for High Performance, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Anthony Bryk. 1999. "Policy Lessons from Chicago 's Experience with Decentralization. In D. Ravitch (ed.)Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 1999. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 67-109.

 

11.     School Choice, and Market-Based Reforms:

Gary Ritter and Christopher Lucas. 2002.. "The 'Common School' Fallacy." Education Week October 23'd.

 

Several articles in Education Week on Supreme Court decision on Cleveland voucher program.

 

John Chubb and Terry Moe. 1990. Politics, Markets and Americas Schools, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, Chapter 2.

 

Henry Levin. 1987. "Education as a Public and Private Good. " Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 6: 628-641.

 

John Witte. 2000. The Market Approach to Education: An Analysis of America's First Voucher Program. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapter 2.

 

Helen Ladd. 2001. "Market-Based Reforms in Urban Education. "

 

12.     Evidence on the Impact of Different School Choice Approaches:

     

Rand Research Brief, 2001. "What Do We Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools. " Full report, "Rhetoric Versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About

Vouchers and Charter Schools, " is available on the RAND website,

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MRl 1181

 

Jeffrey Henig. 1999. "School Choice Outcomes." In S. Sugarman, and Frank Kemerer (eds.) School Choice and Social Controversy. Washington DC: Brookings Institution, Chapter 3.

 

Caroline Minter Hoxby. 2002. "School Choice and School Productivity (Or Could School Choice Be a Tide That Lifts All Boats). " National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 8873, April, pp. 30-74.

 

Alejandra Mizala and Pilar Romaguera. 2000. "School Performance and Choice: The Chilean Experience." Journal of Human Resources 35: pp. 392-4 17.

 

Randall Eberts and Kevin Hollenbeck. 2002. "Impact of Charter School Attendance on Student Achievement in Michigan. "Upjohn Institute Staff Working Paper No. 02-080.

 

13.         Statewide Performance Standards and School Accountability:

Education Week. 2000. "A Test Is Born." April 20, 32-36.

 

Daniel Koretz. 1996. "Using Student Assessments for Educational Accountability. " in E. Hanushek and D. Jorgenson (eds.)Improving America 's Schools: The Role of Incentives, Washington DC: National Academy Press.

 

Eric Hanushek. 2001. "The Confusing World of Educational Accountability." National Tax Journal. June (54): 365-384.

 

Helen Ladd. 2001. "School-Based Educational Accountability Systems: The Promise and the Pitfalls." National Tax Journal. June (54): 385-400.

 

Amy Ellen Schwartz and Leanna Stiefel. 2001. "Measuring School Efficiency. " In David Monk, Herbert Walberg, and Margaret Wang (eds.) 2001. Improving Educational Productivity. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

 

14.     Evaluating Accountability Systems:

           

Helen Ladd. 1999. "The Dallas School Accountability and Incentive Program: An Evaluation of its Impacts on Student Outcomes." Economics of Education Review. 18: l-l6.

 

Stephen Samuel Smith and Roslyn Arlin Mickelson. 2000. "All That Glitters Is Not Gold: School Reform in Charlotte-Mecklenburg." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 22 (Summer): 101-127.

 

Bruce Jacob. 2001. "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams." Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 23: 99-121.

 

Brian Jacob. 2002. "Test-Based Accountability and Student Achievement Gains: Theory and Evidence."

 

15.     Teacher Labor Markets: Effects on Recruitment and Retention:

 

Susanna Loeb. 2000. "Teacher Quality: Its Enhancement and Potential for Improving Pupil Achievement." In David Monk, Herbert Walberg, and Margaret Wang (eds.)2001. Improving Educational Productivity. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

 

Robin Henke, et. al., 1997. "America 's Teachers: Profile of a Profession, 1993-94." NCES 97-460, Chapter 8.

 

Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff. 2002. "Teacher Sorting and the

Plight of Urban Schools: A Descriptive Analysis. " Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 24: 37-62.

 

Richard Murnane, Judith Singer and John Willet. 1988. "The Career Paths of Teachers: Implications for Teacher Supply and Methodological Lessons for Research." Educational Researcher, August-September

 

            Dale Ballou and Michael Podgursky. 1998. "Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Public

and Private Schools." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 17: 393-417.

 

16.     Teacher compensation and evaluation:

 

Richard Murnane and David Cohen. 1986. "Merit Pay and the Evaluation Problem: Why Most Merit Pay Plans Fail and a Few Survive." Harvard Educational Review 56: 1 -17.

 

Carolyn Kelley and Allan Odden. 2000. "Addressing Teacher Quality and Supply Through Compensation Policy." Paper prepared for the New York State Education Finance Consortium.

 

Dale Ballou. 2001. "Pay for Performance in Public and Private Schools.” Economics of Education Review 20: 5 l-61.

 

17.         Compensatory Education and Comprehensive Education Reform:

Herbert Walberg and Rebecca Greenberg. “The Diogenes Factor: Why It’s Hard to Get an Unbiased View of Programs Like Success for All”. Education Week. April 8, 1998.

 

W. Steve Barnett. 1996. “Economics of School Reform: Three Promising Models.” in Ladd (ed), Holding Schools Accountable. Chapter 9.

 

Elizabeth Jones, Gary Gottfredson and Denise Gottfredson. 1997. "Success for Some: An Evaluation of Success for All Program." Evaluation Review 21 (December): 643-670.

 

American Institutes of Research. 1999. An Educator's Guide to Schoolwide Reform. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service, introduction, overview, and sections on each program. The full report is available on the web through the web site for the American Association of School Administrators, www.aasa.org/Reform/index.htm