The Uses of Schooling

The Uses of Schooling, first published in 1988, proposes a radically different approach to the evaluation of education. Professor Broudy shows that the common criteria of school effectiveness – that is the ability to replicate the end-of-course performance on examinations or to apply such results – clearly demonstrates the ‘uselessness’ of much of the investment made in schooling. This is so because, unless constantly reinforced by repetition the ability to replace test performance is rapid...