Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

DOI: 10.22804/kjep.2021.18.1.002

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits non-commercial use and distribution of the work, provided that the original work is properly cited and no modifications or derivative works are made.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

ⓒKorean Educational Development Institute (KEDI)

Abstract 

Efficiency and equity trade-off reflects the tension between the different sets of competing values in education policy. Despite a substantial body of research on the efficiency-equity trade-off, empirical studies reach little consensus on whether efficiency and equity as policy goals are conflicting in the process of public service provision. Using cost function and student performance data from New Jersey, we examine whether there is any trade-off between the two different values affected by the No Child Left Behind Act. Results reveal that there is efficiency-equity trade-off for eleventh grade, but not for eighth grade. This suggests that the relationship of the two goals can be determined by the function of the educational system, even within a school district.