Educational productivity offers a perspective but not a solution for many of the problems in American education. Because education produces several different products, several kinds of educational policy outcomes can be defined as productivity increases. These include improving classroom methods, curriculum structure, curriculum content, technology, organizational processes, and educational management. Other productivity increases include reallocation of resources to programs of greater social value, to educational levels where they will do the most good, or to pupils for whom the marginal productivity of resources is likely to be greater. Federal and state governments have tried to improve all these types of productivity. Yet the overall effect is difficult to gauge. In some cases, federal or state action may advance one dimension of productivity while diminishing another. Although the largest questions of school finance cannot be answered on productivity grounds alone, some dimensions of productivity ought to guide policy decisions. Federal and state governments ought to concentrate resources on developing productive programs. Efforts also should be made to increase productivity through improving the organizational processes and management of education. Finally, more attention should be given to more productive ways of educating adults and secondary school students. (Author/JM)