THE PRODUCTION FUNCTION MODEL

There are two traditions of research on school effects that have developed and remain in almost complete isolation from each other. First, there is a classroom instruction tradition consisting of a large and inconclusive literature on the impact of instruction upon learning. Long before anyone misinterpreted the Coleman Report of 1966 as showing that schools have no effect on achieve-ment, there was ample evidence that the research on classrooms has little to say about the connection between what teachers do and what students learn. Second, a more recent tradition dating to the Coleman Report examines school effects using a quasi-production function formulation to examine the connections between school resources and achievement. We will argue not only that the two traditions have a connection but that the agenda addressed by one is integral to the agenda addressed by the other. Whatever the inadequacies of past work, the study of the impact of classroom instruction on learning (or achievement) is directly relevant to the application of production function models to schooling. In the pro-duction function literature the sources of within-school variation have either been ignored or handled improperly. Moreover, the more complete under-standing of the macrosocial aspects of schools and school systems will surely contribute to better understanding of how classrooms work and students learn