Educational productivity: Urgent needs and new remedies

Abstract

S A PERIOD OF EDUCATIONAL reform is ending, more radical restructuring is beginning. Dissatisfied with current progress, the industrialized countries of Western Europe, North America, and the Pacific want more efficiency from their education systems. Similarly, investors in the third world such as the World Bank compare the benefits and costs of loans for building schools, hospitals, and roads to find out which is the best investment. In the United States, educational consumers-business and civic leaders, citizens, and parents-demand evidence from educators of learning value for money spent. The views of U.S. educators and those they serve increasingly diverge. A recent U.S. poll showed that 86 percent of school superintendents gave the schools a rating of good or very good, while 77 percent of business executives rated them fair or poor (Allstate, 1990). One-third of superintendents but 92 percent of the business executives thought Japan has a better school system. Both groups recognized family problems and low motivation of students and teachers as underlying problems, but higher percentages of executives cited low academic standards, poorly trained teachers, and a lack of emphasis on basic skills.