THE EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTION FUNCTION

The purpose of this study is to determine if the existing micro-economic production function models are descriptive of public education production as conceptualized in the literature.

A considerable body of research has unsuccessfully sought to estimate the educational production function (see Bowles, 1970; Katzman, 1971; Perl, 1973; Winkler, 1972; Thomas, 1971, 1978; Burkhead, et al., 1967; Levin, 1974a, 1974b; Michaelson, 1970; Murname, 1975; Dreeben, 1980). As early as 1970 Levin cautioned that the application of the concepts of the educational production function might actually degrade the performance of public schools.

There are two critical questions in the efforts to apply production function concepts to public education. First, the assumption of technical efficiency is frequently made in both economic and educational production function research. Second, there is the question of the extent to which public education meets the necessary conditions for the application of micro-economic production function theory and concepts.

A detailed specification of the necessary conditions for technical efficiency is used as criteria in the test of the assumption of technical efficiency. An extensive review of the research on public education is used as data. It was found that none of the necessary conditions are satisfied for the assumption of technical efficiency in public education.

A similar process was used to test the ability of the production function concepts to describe the public educational process. It is found that the necessary conditions are not satisfied. It is concluded that the production function models are not descriptive of the process of public education.

It is suggested that the very emphasis of the production function model diverts attention from the critical question of technical efficiency and fosters the belief that there is some best technology to be used in the creation of educational outputs. The study argues that there may be a very large number of production functions in public education. The selection of a technology is not properly based solely upon the price of inputs.