A Framework for Appraising Educational Reforms

Abstract

Transaction-cost economics provides a framework for appraising educational reforms, i.e., deciding whether these reforms are likely to succeed in the “real life” of schools. This framework conceives of reform as a contract between reformers and stake-holders (teachers, students, parents), and these transactions are marked by bounded rationality, opportunism, and the protection of specific assets (e.g., accumulated knowledge and skills) on the part of participants. Not acknowledging these attributes turns reforms into unproductive planning exercises—mere promises without results—or stakeholders struggling to protect their assets, resulting in the failure of the reform. Several current educational reforms are judged on the basis of their transaction costs and consequent prospects for success.