School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement

Abstract

We study the impact of post-1990 school finance reforms, during the so-called "adequacy" era, on absolute and relative spending and achievement in low-income school districts. Using an event study research design that exploits the apparent randomness of reform timing, we show that reforms lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases in spending in low-income school districts. Using representative samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, we find that reforms cause increases in the achievement of students in these districts, phasing in gradually over the years following the reform. The implied effect of school resources on educational achievement is large.

The Measurement of Student Ability in Modern Assessment Systems

“…While the few cases that we have explored (specifications like those used in Dee andJacob 2011 andLafortune, Rothstein, andSchanzenbach 2016) do not seem to suffer from important biases, there is no guarantee of the same result in other contexts. In such cases, researchers must first make sure that they understand the cognitive ability data they are using well enough to recognize what biases might be relevant.…”

Thirteenth AnnualBrownLecture in Education Research: Public Education and the Social Contract: Restoring the Promise in an Age of Diversity and Division

“…Decades of underinvestment in primary, secondary, and higher education not only slowed the nation’s rate of human capital accumulation, but by lagging the evolution of skill-biased technological change, it also fomented income inequality (Autor, 2014). Odden et al (1995) argued that infusion of money in poor districts would raise scholastic achievement if directed to the regular education curriculum—a premise supported by recent studies (Corcoran & Evans, 2007; Lafortune, Rothstein, & Schanzenbach, 2016). …”

Do Enhanced Funding Policies Targeting Students in Poverty Close Achievement Gaps? Evidence from the American States, 1996–2015

“…Most recently, Baker (2018) finds that targeted and sustained school finance reforms can improve both short-and long-term student outcomes. Similarly, Lafortune, Rothstein, and Schanzenbach (2016) find that 10 years following reform, relative achievement of students in low-income districts had risen by roughly onefifth of the baseline gap between high-and low-income districts. Finally, Grubb (2011) argues that Hanushek and others inappropriately focus on school revenues rather than school resources, and finds that low-performing schools disproportionately suffer from ineffective teaching, poor-quality curriculum, and poor school climates.…”