The magnitude of variation in the quality of teachers, even within each school, is startling. Teachers who work in a given school, and therefore teach students with similar demographic characteristics, can be responsible for increases in math and reading levels that range from a low of one-half year to a high of one and a half years of learning…

We provide evidence that the robust association between cognitive skills and economic growth reflects a causal effect of cognitive skills and supports the economic benefits of effective school policy. We develop a new common metric that allows tracking student achievement across countries, over time, and along the within-country distribution.…

Most analyses of teacher quality end without any assessment of the economic value of altered teacher quality. This paper combines information about teacher effectiveness with the economic impact of higher achievement. It begins with an overview of what is known about the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement, which provides…

Argues that failure to improve the quality of public education since publication of "A Nation at Risk" has cost the American economy hundreds of billions of dollars in unrealized growth. Asserts that policymakers must look beyond the largely ineffective efforts to improve school quality by increasing expenditures and reducing class size.…

The panoply of possible factors contributing to the observed earnings differences between blacks and whites exceeds current analytical abilities. Thus, this paper concentrates on a limited range of factors: skill differences among workers, geographic location (or labor market), and race. Skill differences are measured by schooling and experience…

Two decades of research into educational production function have revealed that variations in school expenditures are not systematically related to educational background, teaching experience, or class size; nor are better teachers paid more than lesser ones. School decision-making must move away from input directed policies to ones providing…