Includes bibliographical references and index.

Humans as machines -- Learning and producing -- Earnings inequality -- A role for government -- Appendix: Learn to learn. Learn to earn. Then earn -- Exercises -- Resources and outcomes -- Waste and calls for reform -- Time series evidence -- More court orders -- Cost-benefit analyses are not our focus -- The education production function -- Salary schedules -- Class size -- Evidence from developing countries -- Approaches to education reform -- Exercises -- Assessment-based incentives -- Defining terms -- An empirical regularity -- Economic theory and Campbell's Law -- Parallels to education -- Optimal incentive design -- Alignment problems -- Solutions to alignment problems -- Pay for percentile -- Two tasks require two measurement systems -- Who teaches -- The limits of ABI systems -- Appendix: Empirical work on educator quality -- Appendix: Multi-tasking for beginners -- Exercises -- Letting parents choose -- Attendance zones -- Deferred acceptance -- Top trading cycles -- DA vs TTC -- The importance of being earnest -- Recent empirical work -- Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic -- Exercises -- Charter schools -- Lottery results -- Studies without lotteries -- Competitive pressures on public schools -- Competition is not a magic bullet -- Appendix: Experimental data and late for beginners -- Vouchers -- Baseline model -- Public versus private school comparisons -- Public school responses -- Too focused on saving money -- Vouchers systems need accountability systems -- International evidence -- Political barriers -- Design details, segregation, and inequality -- Peer effects and complications -- Exercises -- Putting the pieces together -- Work to be done -- Moving forward.