Reform of American education is largely motivated by concerns about our economic competitiveness and Americans' standard of living. Yet few if any of the public school reform agendas incorporate economic principles or research findings. Improving America's Schools explores how education and economic research can help produce a unified framework for future education reform. This book presents the perspectives of noted experts on such issues as creating incentives for improved school and student performance, education reform programs, and education of the disadvantaged. It explores the importance of schooling for labor market success; the prospects for combining school-based management with teacher incentives to gain the best of both approaches; the potential of recent innovations in student achievement testing, including new "value-added" indicators; and the economic factors involved in maintaining an adequate stock of effective teachers.

Improving America's Schools also explores why, despite similar standards of living, France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and the United States produce different levels of education achievement.