In this course, we study the economic approach to the analysis of education. This course is designed to increase your comfort in interacting with and evaluating the merits and demerits of proposed policies (educational or otherwise). This class is useful for students who want to have a firm background in one of the most important ongoing public policy arenas, and for educators who want to serve as better advocates for effective educational reform. The economic study of education is heavily empirical, so we will spend some time introducing the statistical tools most commonly used by economists, and we will spend large amounts of time discussing the state of the art of the evidence in favor of, and against, many current educational practices. Some topics we will cover are: economic theories of educational investment and production, the interaction of markets with educational provision, and the role of education as the “great equalizer”.

A few current policy debates we will delve into include: the effects of class size and teacher credentials on student success, the effects “No Child Left Behind” and standards-based educational reform, the use of incentive pay for teachers, and the practice of issuing vouchers as a means to encouraging greater school choice.

Course Requirements:

Experience in at least one course in statistics will be very helpful (and more will be more helpful yet), and so I recommend some familiarity with statistics, though I do not require it. Background in ECON 102 (Macro) will also be useful on occasion, but is not critical.

Intended Audience:

Sophomore and junior economics majors, as well as any other students who may be interested the function and reform of US educational system, or who are interested in the implementation and evaluation of social policy.

Class Format:

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