Abstract
Although suggestions for the reallocation of educational resources for individual schools or school districts are often made on the basis of comparative test scores by academic area across such individual schools or school districts, such scores, it is shown, are neither necessarily nor sufficiently informative for the systematic determination of utility increasing reallocations of those resources. To the extent that different administrators hold different educational utility functions in terms of test scores, then, even under assumptions of concurrent, but individual utility maximizations, different distributions of educational resources would be expected. Students in individual school or school districts, therefore, would be expected to have comparative test scores that are necessarily low in at least one academic area and high in at least one other, mutatis mutandis. Reallocations made on the basis of comparative test scores by academic area within individual schools or school districts, therefore, cannot, it is shown, be expected to systematically increase educational utility.
Highlights
Scores across SchoolsReceived July 30th, 2010; revised September 25th, 2010; accepted September 30th, 2010
Comparative test scores by academic area for individual schools or school districts are extensively reported by the various media and the subject of much discussion by policy makers, educational authorities, and members of the general public
Is the typical suggestion of change in resource allocation given the report of comparative test scores by academic area necessarily utility-increasing? If different school administrators allocate resources under utility-maximizing conditions, but with respect to different educational utility functions, even in this case, the students in such schools or school districts would be expected to have comparative test scores that are necessarily low in at least one academic area and high in at least one other academic area, mutatis mutandis
Summary
Received July 30th, 2010; revised September 25th, 2010; accepted September 30th, 2010. Reallocations made on the basis of comparative test scores by academic area within individual schools or school districts, cannot, it is shown, be expected to systematically increase educational utility. Comparative test scores by academic area for individual schools or school districts are extensively reported by the various media and the subject of much discussion by policy makers, educational authorities, and members of the general public.. Comparative test scores by academic area for individual schools or school districts are extensively reported by the various media and the subject of much discussion by policy makers, educational authorities, and members of the general public.1 It is on the basis of such comparative scores across schools or districts that reforms in resource allocation are suggested. Is such a change in resource allocation necessarily educational utility-increasing (Leithwood & Stager, 1989; Simon, 1976)?2 For the purpose of stimulating empirical work on the relationship between comparative test scores and resource allocation, consider the following model of optimal resource allocation and the discussion of exogenous effects given optimal resource allocation
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