Extreme conclusions about education 'efficiency'

A new review by the National Education Policy Center of a recent report from GEMS Education Solutions that scores and ranks national education systems on efficiency finds the report generates extreme conclusions and unrealistic policy proposals. The report ranks 30 countries on their educational system "efficiency" through a model that compares national test scores, national teacher-wage rates, and pupil-teacher ratios. Test scores used are from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Based on its model, the report identifies wage levels and class sizes it deems optimally efficient for each country, which are sometimes surprisingly drastic. Switzerland, for example, would have to cut wages nearly in half to achieve its "optimal" teacher salary, while Indonesia would have to triple teacher wages. For four countries, the optimal class size is estimated at fewer than two students per teacher. Such anomalies expose weaknesses in each of the study's three key elements, the reviewer writes, since "the output measure is questionable, the input measures are unclear, and the econometric method by which they are correlated does not have a straightforward economic interpretation." Consequently, the report does nothing more than "satisfy an apparent keenness for reports that rank countries -- and especially for reports that castigate low-rank countries." It fails to advance an understanding of how to make education more efficient. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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