Concentration on school attainment goals without close attention to school quality has hurt developing countries. Recent evidence shows that individual incomes, the distribution of income, and economic growth rates are all closely related to the cognitive skills of the population. While direct evidence from developing countries is thin, the…

Attention to the quality of human capital in different countries naturally leads to concerns about how school policies relate to student performance. The data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study provide a way of comparing performance in different schooling systems. The results of analyses of educational production functions…