Performance Pressure and Resource Allocation in Washington

Based on interviews with state, district, and school officials, explores how performance pressures have changed resource allocation decisions. Examines reform goals and how Washington's finance system impedes efforts to link resources to student learning

Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts

Examines the growth of charter school management organizations, characteristics of students served, and use of resources; CMO practices; impact on students, including middle school test scores; and structures and practices linked to positive outcomes

Pequeños milagros: perspectivas del comportamiento para mejorar la política de desarrollo : el Informe sobre el Desarrollo Mundial 2015

Uno de los más fructíferos avances en la Economía moderna ha sido la introducción de realismo psicológico en el modelo del "hombre económico". El Informe sobre el Desarrollo Mundial 2015 organiza la evidencia sobre cómo los seres humanos realmente piensan y toman decisiones en un marco coherente, útil para el diseño de la Política de Desarrollo. Este trabajo profundiza en los tres principios del pensamiento humano que constituyen el marco intelectual del informe: (i) el pensamiento automático, (ii) el pensamiento social; y, (iii) el pensamiento con modelos mentales. Las percepciones del comportamiento crean posibilidades de intervenciones políticas que producen "milagros" desde la perspectiva de la Economía tradicional

Behavioral Development Economics

Economics, like all behavioral sciences, incorporates premises about how people think. Behavioral economics emerged in reaction to the extreme assumption in neoclassical economics that agents have unbounded cognitive capacity and exogenous, fixed preferences. There have been two waves of behavioral economics, and both have enriched development economics. The first wave takes into account that cognitive capacity is bounded and that individuals in many situations act predictably irrationally: there are universal human biases. Behavioral development economics in this first wave has shown that low-cost interventions can be “small miracles” that increase productivity and well-being by making it easier for people to make the rational choice. The second wave of behavioral economics explicitly takes into account that humans are products of culture as well as nature. From their experience and exposure to communities, humans adopt beliefs that shape their perception, construals, and behavior. This second wave helps explain why long-run paths of economic development may diverge across countries with different histories. The second wave also suggests a new kind of intervention: Policies that give individuals new experiences or new role models may change their perceptions and preferences. New perceptions and preferences change behavior. This is a very different perspective than that of neoclassical economics, in which changing behavior requires ongoing interventions.</p

The Making of Behavioral Development Economics

A core insight from early behavioral economics is that much of human judgment and behavior is influenced by "fast thinking" that is intuitive, associative, and automatic; very little human thinking resembles the rational thinking that characterizes homo economicus. What is less well-recognized is that innate reliance on cognitive shortcuts means that cultural mental models --categories, concepts, social identities, narratives, and worldviews -- profoundly influence judgment and behavior. Individuals have a cultural "toolkit" or "repertoire" of mental models that they use to perceive and interpret a situation and construct a response. Many researchers have connected cultural mental models to economic development, yet they rarely identify their research findings as "behavioral" economics. This research constitutes a second strand of behavioral economics that illuminates the tight interlinkages between preferences, culture, and institutions and points to new policy opportunities. It brings the discipline almost full circle back to 18th and 19th century perspectives. This essay cautions against strong reductionism in which sociological influences on decision making are squeezed into a rational actor model

“Small Miracles”—Behavioral Insights to Improve Development Policy: World Development Report 2015

One of the most fruitful advances in modern economics has been the introduction of psychological realism into the model of "economic man." The World Development Report 2015 organizes the evidence about how humans actually think and make decisions into a coherent framework useful for designing development policy. This paper elaborates on the three principles of human thinking that constitute the report's intellectual framework: Human thinking is dual process -- automatic as well as deliberative (thinking automatically); it is conditioned by social context and the salience of social identities (thinking socially); and it is shaped by mental models that are socially constructed (thinking with mental models). Behavioral insights create scope for policy interventions that produce "miracles" from the perspective of traditional economics

PERFORMANCE PRESSURE AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN OHIO

public engagement activities that examine how K-12 finance can be redesigned to better support student performance. The project addresses the basic question, “How can resources help schools achieve the higher levels of student performance that state and national education standards now demand?” Check in with us periodically to see what we’re learning and how that information may reshape education finance to make money matter for America’s schools. You can find us at www.schoolfinanceredesign.org

Learning from Charter School Management Organizations: Strategies for Student Behavior and Teacher Coaching

The National Study of CMO Effectiveness examines the effects of nonprofit charter school management organizations (CMOs) on student achievement and the practices that are related to positive effects. This report—the last in a series—describes two types of CMO practices—student behavior policies and teacher coaching—that are associated with positive impacts on math and reading achievement. The study, which began in May 2008, was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). It was commissioned by NewSchools Venture Fund, with the generous support of th