Volume 10, Number 1 (Winter) 1975
Klitgaard, Robert E., and George R. Hall. 1975. "Are There Unusually Effective Schools?" Journal of Human Resources 10(1):90-106.
An exploratory analysis of four large educational data sets found evidence of schools and districts that consistently produced outstanding students, even after socioeconomic factors were controlled for. Like many previous studies, this study used regression analysis of achievement data, but it focused on statistical outliers rather than on central tendencies. Histograms of residuals showed no evidence of extreme overachievers, but comparisons over different years and grades of consistently overachieving schools with the number expected by chance showed some evidence of unusually effective performers. Outstanding Michigan schools had smaller classes, better-paid teachers, and more teachers with greater than five years' experience.
Dr. Klitgaard is in the Economics Department of the RAND Corporation. Dr. Hall is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. The findings reported here are based on the authors' monograph. We are grateful to the Carnegie Corporation and RAND for research support; to Henry Acland and the University of the State of New York for data; and to Frank Berger, William Fairley, and Gus Haggstrom for their advice and assistance. The usual caveat protecting these people and institutions from further responsibility is, of course, in order.
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