Resources and Standards in Urban Schools

Stephen Machin (), Sandra McNally () and Costas Meghir ()
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Sandra McNally: CEE, CEP, London School of Economics and IZA

No 2653, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: Despite being central to government education policy in many countries, there remains considerable debate about whether resources matter for pupil outcomes. In this paper we look at this question by considering an English education policy initiative - Excellence in Cities - which has been a flagship policy aimed at raising standards in inner-city secondary schools. We report results showing a positive impact of the extra resources on school attendance and performance in Mathematics (though not for English) but, interestingly, there is a marked heterogeneity in the effectiveness of the policy. Its greatest impact has been in more disadvantaged schools and on the performance of middle and high ability students within these schools. A back-of-envelope cost-benefit calculation suggests the policy to be cost-effective. We conclude that additional resources can matter for children in the poorest secondary schools, particularly when building on a solid educational or ability background. However, small changes in resources have little or no effect on the ‘hard to reach’ children who have not achieved a sufficiently strong prior level.

Keywords: education; resources; evaluation; disadvantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 H52 C52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-geo, nep-pbe and nep-ure
Date: 2007-03
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Working Paper: Resources and Standards in Urban Schools (2007)
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