Educational Achievement and the Allocation of School Resources

Deborah Cobb-Clark and Nikhil Jha

No 7551, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The school resources – educational outcomes debate has focused almost exclusively on spending levels. We extend this by analysing the relationship between student achievement and schools' budget allocation decisions using panel data. Per-pupil expenditure has only a modest relationship with improvement in students' standardised test scores. However, budget allocation across spending categories matters for student achievement, particularly in grade 7. Ancillary teaching staff seems especially important in primary- and middle-school years. Spending on school leadership – primarily principals – is also linked to faster growth in literacy levels in these grades. On the whole, schools' spending patterns are broadly efficient.

Keywords: educational achievement; test scores; school resource allocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Australian Economic Review, 2016, 49 (3), 251 – 271

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Related works:
Journal Article: Educational Achievement and the Allocation of School Resources (2016)
Working Paper: Educational Achievement and the Allocation of School Resources (2013)
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