Earning and Learning: How Schools Matter - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815755295 ISBN 13: 9780815755296

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 1999

Synopsis

Education is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy--yet scholars, educators, policymakers, and parents do not agree about what the money spent on education really buys. In particular, they do not agree on how much education improves children's ability to learn or whether the things children learn in school truly improve their chances for success as adults. If schooling increases how much students know and what they know does pay off later, then it is important to ask what schools can do to increase students' learning and earning. The essays in this book report estimates of the effects of learning on earnings and other life outcomes. They also examine whether particular aspects of schooling--such as the age at which children begin school, classroom size, and curriculum--or structural reform--such as national or statewide examinations or school choice--affect learning. Taken together, their findings suggest that liberals are correct in saying that more investment is needed in early education, that class sizes should be further reduced, and that challenging national or state standards should be established. But they also provide support for conservatives who ask for a more demanding curriculum and greater school choice. Contributors include John Bishop, Eric Hanushek, James Heckman, Christopher Jencks, Caroline Minter Hoxby, Fred Mosteller, and Christopher Winship.

About this title

About the Author:

Susan E. Mayer is associate professor of sociology in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and author of What Money Can't Buy (Harvard, 1997). Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard, the director of PEPG, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is author or editor of numerous books, including The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools, with William G. Howell (Brookings, 2004 and 2006). He is coeditor (with Martin West) of No Child Left Behind? The Practice and Politics of School Accountability (Brookings, 2003).

Review:

"This is an outstanding collection that
demonstrates that schools matter, particularly for enhancing later earnings. The book should
be indispensable reading for anyone interested in general strategies for improving schools
and adult lives." -Thomas Cook, Northwestern University

About this edition

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0815755295
• ISBN 13: 9780815755296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 377
• Editor: Mayer Susan E., Peterson Paul E.