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Abstract:
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In a perfect world , neo -classical economics and rational theory make sense . But in this imperfect world this paper has turned to Oliver Williamson and his understanding of New Institutional Economics to help us make sense . NIE helps explain institutions and organizations and their role in creating and shaping contracts that fit a very diverse institutional , organizational and human landscape . NIE provides a new lens to examine institutions as diverse as politics and as rigid as economics . Yet , one critical institution has yet to be examined through that lens . That institution is Public Education . It is that examination which this paper undertakes . By examining public education and seeking to explain it with NIE theory , it is my intent to provide fresh language and perhaps an alternative framework for viewing public education . The current debate in education revolves around schools and their productivity in turning out students who can master state and national exams . Understanding the need to start all discussion and debate with the personal transaction cost of education to students completely reverses that debate . Too little attention is paid to the individual student ; where they come from , what they bring to the daily transactions they are faced with in education and how they willnegotiate the implied contract into which they have unknowingly entered . By focusing on students rather than organizations and their component parts , we change the measurement of schools from that of organizational production functions to those that create environments where students' needs and abilities have priority . Examining test data of individual student performance in a large urban school district over a nine year period provides the empirical foundation for this approach . And consistent withthe NIE bounded rational approach , it will consider that data with the life experiences that students bring to the market place called school . |