Raising school productivity: An x-efficiency approach

Attempts by economists to raise educational productivity have focused traditionally on educational production functions with the hope that their findings will influence educational policy. This article uses a more direct approach by taking five key dimensions of efficient production organizations and showing how they have been applied directly to improving school productivity through a national school reform effort, the Accelerated Schools Project. The specific dimensions of change and their implementation are presented as well as evidence of their impacts on improving productivity of schools serving at-risk student populations. It is asserted that substantial gains in productivity can be obtained at a marginal cost of less than 1 % of the school budget through transforming schools to improve their “x-efficiency”.