Assessing Educational Practices: The Contribution of Economics.

• Author: Milkman, Martin

The dialogue between economists researching educational policy issues and researchers from other disciplines who focus on educational policy has been limited. This book attempts to expose other researchers and policy makers to "the broad range of methods that economists have applied in their . . . examination of educational issues" [p. 12]. An introductory chapter briefly summarizes the eight papers. These papers vary in focus and accessibility to those with limited math backgrounds. While all of the papers will be accessible to economists with even limited technical skills, some will be inaccessible to the majority of faculty in most schools of education.

The issue of school choice is addressed in two papers. Fels explains how markets operate and compares the higher education system in the U.S. to the pre-college system. He then offers support for implementing a choice system. "The argument for parental choice of schools seems weak until we examine the alternatives. The evidence suggests that the alternatives are worse" [p. 43]. Aoki and Feiner argue against school choice. After reviewing studies on how parents choose schools, how competitive the education market will be if a choice system is implemented, and how public and private schools compare they conclude, "U.S. public schools do need improvement. The available evidence, however, does not support adoption of the market choice approach" [p. 89]. In reviewing these two papers the editors note that, "the economic model of a market offers weapons both to those who favor policies designed to stimulate competition among the institutions that supply pre-college education and those who oppose it" [p. 5]. What message will the educational research community take away from these two papers? Do economists have valuable insights to offer to the school choice debate or are economists merely hired guns to be used by both sides as additional weapons?

Many economists claim that there is no systematic relationship between educational expenditures and student achievement levels. Two papers in this collection address this issue. Bishop argues that the low level of student achievement is due to the lack of importance placed on student achievement by both colleges and employers. Employers place little importance on high school student achievement levels in part because of limited access to transcripts. Bishop notes that "young workers who have achieved in high school have not been receiving appreciably...