Notes for a Talk on Education

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Wednesday evening in Phoenix. Here is the flyer. The title of the talk is “Competition in Education: Is it a Solution or it is a Problem?”

I find it difficult to prepare such talks far in advance. Instead, I prepare more like a rock or jazz musician, going over various riffs. Anyway, here are my current notes.

1. Over the course of their lives, today’s students will be involved in education much more than they expect. It is a growth sector in terms of jobs. The need to acquire more education will be greater than expected.

2. Non-traditional education will grow in importance relative to traditional schooling.

3. People are uncomfortable using market terminology to describe education. It is similar to health care in that regard.

4. What matters in determining lifetime outcomes? My views:

–genetics 50 %
–parental environment, particularly in early childhood 20 % +
–unsystematic factors (luck, if you will) 20 % +
–schooling and other controllable environmental factors < 10% 5. Pre-K plausibly can tweak the parental environment factor for children of low-functioning parents. 6. With K-12, we do not have any proven, reliable, scalable way to improve outcomes. If the market were fully competitive, costs would be driven down, with little or no effect on quality. Note, however, that the survival of charter schools depends on the opposite--their ability to show an effect on quality, with little or no regard to cost. 7. I think of colleges as being of two types: "experiential" and "transactional." The experiential colleges provide social activities, entertainment, and experiences that build an identity, along with the curriculum. Transactional colleges mostly just offer courses. Students are more interested in credentials. 8. Experiential colleges have a "bundling" model. As long as that model is sustainable, they do not face strong pressures to adopt innovative teaching methods. 9. Transactional colleges are under stronger pressure to adapt. Blended learning, that combines computer-based instruction with live coaching, is likely to emerge. 10. Both experiential colleges and transactional colleges make you fill out an application. But only the experiential colleges are highly selective. 11. In education, the answer to the question posed in the title probably depends on whether you think that the customers in education know what they should be looking for. The traditional answer to this question is "no."

4 thoughts on “Notes for a Talk on Education”

  1. 13. Today’s model of education presents a fixed curriculum at a fixed time with fixed ‘tests’/feedback. The variable is the student’s grade. Tomorrow’s model presents fixed curriculum with many tests/feedback loops which repeat until the student shows mastery (gets an ‘A’) or moves on of their own accord. The variable is start time and duration.

  2. I suggest you retitle your talk to “to what degree and by what means can educational activities help you or your children rise in status, or even enter the elite”

    Since, of course, that’s largely what it’s about.

    And the sad news that by definition 99% of us cannot be in the 1% is unaffected by commitment to education….

  4. Cool notes. Good luck on this. A couple quick thoughts.

    2. There’s evidence of this happening already. Internships, gap years, etc. seem to be more common than ever as people try to develop a more unique background. I’m not yet convinced that it’s leading to people getting better jobs, however. I seem to recall MR posting a link that economists used to be hired from six universities; now only two.

    3. In almost every developed country in the West, education and health care are both thought of in almost the exact same way. I think only a libertarian would be interested in this insight, and even then I don’t see how a libertarian could be surprised by it. The terminology is often disturbing, however, and you might point out that one reason it disturbs is that it reveals how much public education is built upon industrial structures.

    RE: 11 – The concern I see more often is not whether the customer can choose but whether choice will reinforce social stratification.

    Best of luck on your talk.

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