Student Test Performance and National Economies: Examining a Neoliberal Conjecture

Abstract

PISA results make national decision makers very nervous and for good reason: There is the perceived assumption that student performance on the PISA and other international exams are tied directly to a nation's future economic status. Essentially, the notion is that the greater the students’ test scores, the more secure a nation's economic future. But such concerns ignore the three main functions of educational systems: the socialization of youth so that they understand their culture, nation's history, and normative culture; the political socialization of youth so that they become competent citizens; and the provision of skills to youth so that they can participate in the labor market. So there is reason to infer that education is tied to the economy. There are two conjectures being made here: The first is that student performance is related to a nation's economy. That is, the better the economy, the better the student performances. A second conjecture is that student performance will lead to better economies or greater economic growth. The first conjecture seems to view education as being endogenous to economic growth or at least associated with it. The second conjecture, however, views education as being exogenous to economic growth, and it measures the change in economic growth over time to some given level of education among a cohort. In my analysis, I find that education is not related to economic growth after other structural factors are taken into account.