MACRO-ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

This paper presents a rudimentary model of the public school system as an input-output process. The inputs are students' own abilities and attitudes, parental support, peer support, quality of the school system, community support, and society's posture with respect to education. Outputs are various categories of academic achievement as well as social competence, responsibility, self confidence, creativeness, ethics, and ambition. All these factors must be measured by index numbers or simple indicators. The model is a set of regression equations relating outputs to inputs. Some implementation of the model has been made possible by means of data gathered in the U.S. Office of Education's Equality-of-Educational-Opportunity Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]