EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES IN OECD COUNTRIES
41
particular, evidence from both within and across countries points to the positive impact
of competition among schools, of accountability and student testing, and of local school
autonomy in decision making.34 Research on these policies, separately and in
combination, indicates some continuing uncertainty about the magnitude of any effects
but does support more aggressive attention to these in setting school policies.
An important aspect highlighted by the projections is the dynamic nature of human
capital and growth. Our basic characterization of growth indicates that higher cognitive
skills offer a path of continued economic improvement, so that favorable policies today
have growing impacts in the future. However, the full ramifications of schooling
outcomes will not become apparent until reasonably far into the future. The economic
gains from education reform are surely not reaped within matters of one or two political
legislation periods. They rather require a long-run perspective that fully considers the
time horizon of a child born today. In the discussion of climate policies, it has become
custom to consider expected outcomes that materialize several generations from now.
Education policy needs a similar long-term perspective to fully capture the consequences
of possible current reforms.
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34 In a variety of other work, the importance of different educational institutions is investigated. See the international study of
Woessmann, Luedemann, Schuetz, and West (2009) and the United States analysis of Hanushek and Lindseth (2009).