Author: Colin C. Chellman

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

Do schools that have been successful at reducing test score gaps between white students and students of color allocate resources differently than unsuccessful schools? This paper aims to answer that question, as there is little work at the school level correlating education expenditures to student outcomes. This analysis benefits from three features of expenditure data available in one New York State school district. The first is that these data are available at the school level, not the district level as is often the case. Second, not only overall levels of spending per pupil are available (i.e., total spending per pupil and total instructional spending per pupil), but also functional areas of spending disaggregated to such line items as professional development, classroom paraprofessionals, and principal compensation. Third, the spending data allow us to analyze expenditures on these line items not only for all students but also for two types of students: full-time special education and general education. Up to this point, the literature linking financial resources to student outcomes does not strongly support a relationship between school inputs and outputs. However, not much of that work has benefited from the same disaggregated, school-level spending data for different types of students. It is hoped that this analysis - combined with lessons from previously completed case studies of three successful schools - will contribute some insight into the mechanisms involved in reducing test score gaps in middle and elementary schools. In the end analysis, we find that successful schools, despite instructional level and despite type of student, spend significantly more (statistically) on human resources than on other sorts of resources such as textbooks, library books, or instructional supplies, computer, and equipment. This overarching lesson reflects that taken from the original case studies: our analysis suggests successful schools emphasize human resources, resulting in better teacher and administrator attitudes, lower turnover, and teachers who are more satisfied with their school's leadership, which in turn lead to better educated students and environments that allow for test score gaps to be eliminated. Further, we find that disaggregated data - such as those provided for this study - are necessary as statistically-significant measures of activities taking place inside schools.