In response to demands for school accountability, states now devote much attention to distinguishing among effective and ineffective schools. These efforts, while varying considerably in rigor and sophistication, generally emphasize technical or allocative efficiency (e.g., the marginal productivity of measured inputs employed in various…

This article presents the findings from the application of a school-level expenditure framework (see Odden et al., 2003) to 11 elementary schools in 4 states. This detailed expenditure model assigns resources according to the various educational strategies deployed in the school. Nine of the 11 schools studied have implemented one of the following…

A large literature finds that resources are not significant determinants of student performance. These results may arise because resources really do not matter in public education or because local school districts allocate additional resources to poorer performing schools. To shed light on this issue, a unique data set for the Metropolitan…

This article discusses the methods and results of a study designed to determine the cost of education under the curriculum frameworks and state laws in a northeastern state after major education reform and a judicial decision finding the system inadequate and unconstitutional. The study is designed to determine the funding levels necessary for…

Using school-level descriptive data, this study examined the distribution of teachers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an attempt to build on previous research concerning the equity of the finance system in the state. Rather than focusing on revenue from the perspective of horizontal equity, this study used human resource data to examine the…