Category Archives: Economics of Education

In the latest Melbourne Institute newsletter, Director Stephen Sedgwick highlights the strengths and weaknesses of new education data arrangements: Recent COAG reforms, however, present an opportunity to significantly improve access by interested researchers to quality data. New national testing arrangements … Continue reading →

Some new evidence on teacher test scores, this time from Sweden. One Size Fits All? The Effects of Teacher Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities on Student Achievement Erik Grönqvist & Jonas Vlachos Teachers are increasingly being drawn from the lower parts … Continue reading →

The government’s response to the 2020 summit went public yesterday. My one idea was that we should have more randomised trials in education. I was chuffed to see that the idea made it into the document, but somewhat perplexed by … Continue reading →

One small step for researcher access might lead to some giant leaps in what we know about schools. In today’s Canberra Times, Emma McDonald writes: The ACT will be the first state or territory to use national literacy and numeracy … Continue reading →

It seems Australia isn’t the only jurisdiction where the federal government is offering education money to states that is conditional on school-level reporting. According to a new report, US Education Secretary (and former Australian basketballer) Arne Duncan is doing the … Continue reading →

My talk last night to the Skeptics was on the economics of education. In it, I mentioned two unexpected drivers of the drop in teacher quality. As I argued in my latest AFR oped: It is rarely recognised, but Australia … Continue reading →

My AFR oped today is on teacher quality, discussing the various ways we might identify the best teachers. Full text over the fold.

One of the important issues in the economics of education is understanding which teachers quit the profession. Theory doesn’t give a clear answer on this. On the one hand, underperforming teachers might find the job to be harder, so could … Continue reading →

Marianne Bertrand, Rema Hanna, Sendhil Mullainathan present new evidence on the impact of affirmative action in university admissions – this time not from racial AA in the US, but caste AA in India. They find a neat equity-efficiency tradeoff, illustrating the … Continue reading →

Writing today in Eureka Street, Daniel Donahoo makes a key point about the difference between universal and targeted early childhood intervention. Key quote: At the centre of the discussion is the name Dr James Heckman. Heckman was the Nobel Laureate for … Continue reading →

Kim at Larvartus Prodeo kicks off a long comments thread talking about my education research, and the limitations of economic imperialism. Worth reading.

One interesting idea that I’ve heard recently is that education training should move towards the medical model. Just as they have ‘teaching hospitals’, we might think about designating particular schools as being those where most teachers do their practicums (and maybe … Continue reading →

In today’s SMH, senior education bureaucrat (and Sydney University adjunct professor) Paul Brock critiques my study with Chris Ryan. Here’s his oped, and here’s a news story reporting on it. There are a few errors (a. I’m described as the sole author … Continue reading →

We may soon find out. The New York Times reports on a school that’s taking a punt on the growing body of teacher quality research, opting to pay its teachers seriously good salaries. A New York City charter school set … Continue reading →