A school's technology is quite different. Classroom learning depends on the quality of the teachers but also on the nature of the students. From a school's perspective, finding ways to exclude the liabilities is a powerful means of improving performance. Turn next to the market, where GM is judged by the level of its profits. No one assumes that GM should provide cars to families that cannot afford its prices.
Schools operate under different rules.
Under the constitution of virtually every state, every child is entitled to a good public education - a very different regime. Taken together, the differences in technologies and markets suggest that an appropriate standard for judging a school's performance is the extent to which it provides a good education to its students without making it harder for other schools to do the same. A market-based initiative that enables some schools to improve their performance by selecting only students who are assets to their classmates and leaving to schools of last resort students who are perceived as liabilities does not contribute to the goal of providing all students with a good education. Kappan web pages designed by Carol Bucheri. Multiple copies may not be made without permission.