Dive Brief:
- An op-ed in Education Next by three economists suggests "large economic benefits should accrue" for those schools who are able to take advantage of flexibility related to federal accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act and improve quality.
- The economic advantage, the article claims, comes from the fact that better schools graduate better students, who in turn can bring revenue back to their home state once they enter the workforce.
- Calculating the long-term economic impact of a state’s student-achievement levels can be done by examining and analyzing financial advantages that stem from school improvement, and estimating the "impact of knowledge capital on the growth in a state’s GDP," the article states.
Dive Insight:
Drawing a correlation between level of education and earning power makes sense. However, the authors of this article don't consider differences between individual states, which vary greatly and will only see even more disparity as new accountability measures under ESSA are debated and created.
Some reports, like the National Superintendents Roundtable and the Horace Mann League's 2015 study, argue international comparisons of school systems should take into account more than just test scores. That report studied 24 indicators in six categories (student outcomes, school system outcomes, social stress, support for families, support for schools and economic inequity) to assess the educational opportunities in nine foreign countries, ultimately finding that while the U.S has a well-educated adult population and decent test scores, it also has high levels of social stress, poverty and inequality. Those metrics also play a role in overall well-being and career preparedness.