Educational Goods: Values, Evidence and Decision-Making

We spend a lot of time arguing about how schools might be improved. But we rarely take a step back to ask what we as a society should be looking for from education — what exactly should those who make decisions be trying to achieve? "Educational Goods" advances a theory of how to combine values and evidence in decision-making about education. The book identifies three kinds of value that must be balanced against each other: a theory of the kind of educational outcomes schools should aim at; a theory of how educational opportunities should be distributed; and independent values that should be considered when they conflict with the first two kinds of value. The evidence that decision-makers should seek out and consider is that which bears on how these values will be realized through the choices they make, and the book articulates a distinctive method for thinking about the evidence in the light of the values. The method is illustrated through consideration of 3 central policy issues: school financing, school accountability systems, and school choice mechanisms.

Susanna Loeb, Director of the Annenberg Institute and Professor of Education and of International and Public Affairs, Brown University, presented “Educational Goods: Values, Evidence and Decision-Making” at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University on April 22, 2019.