Explaining the Relationship Between Resources and Student Achievement: A Methodological Comparison of Production Functions and Canonical Analysis

What is the relationship between inputs to education and student achievement? The elusive answer to this seemingly self-evident question has led some to characterize the question as the “holy grail” of school finance research for the past thirty years

A Canonical Analysis of Successful vs. Unsuccessful High Schools: Accommodating Multiple Sources of Achievement Data in School Leadership

What distinguishes successful schools from unsuccessful schools? This question has relevance for the practice of educational leadership as well as the preparation of leaders

Training Principals to Ensure Access to Equitable Learning Opportunities in a High-Need Rural School District

During the mid-1980s in Kentucky, a grassroots advocacy group composed of 66 property-poor school districts, seven local school boards, and 22 public school students formed, calling itself the Council for Better Education, Inc

Education Funding and Student Outcomes: A Conceptual Framework for Measurement of the Alignment of State Education Finance and Academic Accountability Policies

The conceptualization and measurement of education finance equity and adequacy has engaged researchers for more than three decades. At the same time, calls for increased academic accountability and higher student achievement in K-12 public education have reached new levels at both the national and state levels

Taxation and Education: Using Educational Research to Inform Coherent Policy for the Public Good

In 2006, following a 30-year trend among the US states to remove the property tax from the revenue for public schools, the South Carolina General Assembly enacted Act 388 which replaced the property tax with a one-cent sales tax. The law decreased the budget capacity of school districts thus impacting educational equity and adequacy. This paper describes key policy makers’ and stakeholders’ interpretations of the pressure for property tax relief and highlight the importance of policy coherence in education finance, taxation, and accountability

Measuring Equity: Creating a New Standard for Inputs and Outputs

What is the appropriate measure of equity in student achievement? An emerging theme in the literature is the convergence of the standards movement and school finance litigation and reform

Adding Soft-Skills to the Hard Target of Adequacy: The Case for Rearticulation Based on a Multifocal Analysis

The purpose of this study is to expand the definition of adequacy by adding soft skills as a measure of school productivity. The singular focus on academic standards inherent in education policy has prevented scholars from seeing the concept of adequacy through myriad perspectives and has contributed to a resegregation of schools. Education policy includes legal, historical, and political perspectives; research inquiries must accommodate these multiple foci. This study made use of multifocal analysis to investigate the development of the concept of adequacy in South Carolina. Conclusions suggest an expanded definition of adequacy has potential for addressing school financing policy, but also for making historical, political and legal contributions to educational and economic policies aimed at repurposing schools

Economic Growth, Productivity, and Public Education Funding: Is South Carolina a Death Spiral State?

As a result of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, most states experienced declines in employment, consumer spending, and economic productivity