The Australian National University Centre for Economic Policy Research DISCUSSION PAPER Long-Run Trends in School Productivity: Evidence From Australia Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 618 August 2009 ISSN: 1442-8636 ISBN: 978 1 921262 99 9 Andrew Leigh, Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/~aleigh/ , Email: andrew.leigh@anu.edu.au Chris Ryan, Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/Staff/ryan/contact_cr.htm Email: chris.ryan@anu.edu.au Acknowledgements: This paper was originally prepared as a report for the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the DEEWR. The authors thank Sheldon Rothman of the Australian Council for Educational Research for providing one set of the school achievement scales used in this paper. He bears no responsibility for our use of those scales. We have benefited from comments from editor David Figlio, an anonymous referee, and seminar participants at the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce and the Queensland Studies Authority Senior Schooling Conference. In revising this report for publication, Susanne Schmidt and Elena Varganova provided outstanding research assistance.