Date of Award

Spring 2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Foundations & Leadership

Program/Concentration

Educational Leadership

Committee Director

William A. Owings

Committee Member

John A. Nunnery

Committee Member

Jason Osborne

Abstract

The current financial state of our nation, in combination with the pressure to meet state accountability testing and a global call for better prepared twenty first century learners, has produced a situation where all levels of government have to make difficult decisions regarding expenditures. In order to ensure that education receives appropriate funding, research is necessary to show a relationship between spending and student achievement. This study examines the effects of sustained increases and decreases in state fiscal effort on student achievement measured by scores from 4th and 8th grade math NAEP scores over an eighteen year period. A quantitative analysis of the data showed that fiscal effort, independently, is not a significant predictor of student achievement. However, the combined effects of fiscal effort and the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced price lunch (FRPL) significantly predict student achievement. In high poverty schools, sustained increases in fiscal effort result in decreased student achievement. In low poverty schools, sustained increases in fiscal effort result in increased student achievement.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/w22t-1783

ISBN

9781267324887

Download

Share

COinS