The Challenge of Developing New Educational Indicators

Proposals for national assessments of educational performance provide opportunities to develop valuable social indicators, but they also pose important problems of methodology and interpretation. Researchers in the U. S. have emphasized the importance of analyzing and reporting indicator data at the school level, mainly because much of the variation in schooling outcomes is at the school level, and because findings at this level are particularly relevant to policy and practice. We do not refute this, but contend that indicator data should be analyzed and reported also at state and district levels. We present an analysis of British data that shows there is important variation at higher levels of the system, and that it is possible to examine whether this variation is related to national or district-level policies. The article discusses the issues involved in conducting analyses at higher levels. We identify three kinds of indicators: gross productivity, net productivity, and inequality. Our analysis indicates the degree of interdistrict variation in Great Britain on all of these measures and the extent to which organizational features of the districts’ programs help explain that variation. Recommendations are made regarding the necessary features of any educational assessment if it is to produce useful social indicators.