Market Education: The Unknown History by Andrew Coulson
Themes: education, international perspective, historical perspective
This fascinating and long book by Andrew Coulson is the only one I know that looks at the different systems of education, the role of markets and states, and the effects of these systems both across a long historical period and around the world. Coulson comes to the conclusion that greater parental and student autonomy, greater freedom for schools and teachers, financial accountability of teachers and schools to parents, and competition between schools, are key ingredients for a successful and rapidly improving education system.
Reviews: Allison Halpern in Education Review, James E. Bond in the Independent Review, Myron Lieberman in the Weekly Standard.
Related work by the author: Markets vs. Monopolies in Education: A Global Review of the Evidence by Andrew Coulson, a policy analysis published by the Cato Institute.
Related books: the beautiful tree by James Tooley.
[...] research on the subject. I am also personally more in line with the view of Andrew Coulson (of Market Education fame) that non-refundable education tax credits are a better way than school vouchers, but in [...]
Pingback by A nice piece on Indian liberals « Thinking Beyond Competition — June 17, 2010 @ 1:56 pm