Student Achievement and National Economic Growth

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

DOES STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT REALLY SPUR NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH?

Educational policy discourse supports the idea that increases in science 
and mathematics achievement correlate to nation-wide economic gains. 
However, a thought-provoking new study from the American Journal of 
Education challenges the perceived causal links between educational 
achievement and economic growth. Francisco O. Ramirez (Stanford 
University) and his co-authors find that without the so-called "Asian 
Tigers," the correlation diminishes and all but disappears.

"This is a striking finding that calls into question the 
disproportionate attention (and envy) focused on those few countries 
with the very highest achievement scores," write the authors. "It is 
clear that education and its reforms are everywhere seen in light of 
their supposed economic effects. It is also clear that the areas of 
education given the most attention as relevant to economic goals have 
been science and mathematics, the new keys to economic growth."

Comparing national GDP data with international standardized test scores 
over two twenty-year periods (1970-1990 and 1980-2000), the researchers 
found that countries with high science and math scores do tend to grow 
somewhat more rapidly than other countries – but not when Hong Kong, 
Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan are removed from the analysis, or in 
an analysis of the last two decades. Additionally, "Moving from the 
'middle of the pack' to the top provides less of an economic boost," the 
authors write.

They continue: "The results run contrary to the expectation that the 
student achievement effect would be stronger in more educationally 
developed countries."

Surprisingly, growth was also higher in countries with lower levels of 
enrollment. The researchers suggest that regimes making a push for 
development might also emphasize disciplined student achievement.

###

Francisco O. Ramirez, Xiaowei Luo, Evan Schofer, and John W. Meyer, 
"Student Achievement and National Economic Growth." American Journal of 
Education: 113:1.

Full text of article at: 
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=msid:AJE113101