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Research & Findings
Publication Full Detail
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THE FINANCIAL AND NON-FINANCIAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH 11TH GRADE STUDENT ACADEMIC PROFICIENCY IN MATH AND READING IN PENNSYLVANIA (June 18, 2009) | | Topic: |
General | | Category: |
White Paper | | Author(s): |
F. Joseph Merlino, R. Lorraine Bernotsky, Jill Feldman, Ning Rui, | | Abstract: |
Overview of Findings An analysis of publicly available data for the 498 school districts in Pennsylvania reveals that:
* 11th grade PSSA performance in math and reading is slightly negatively associated with total district expenditures per student, which ranged between $ 8,168 - $29,512 per student, while holding other contextual variables constant.
* 11th grade PSSA performance in math and reading is not significantly associated with instructional expenditures per student, which ranged between $ 4,276 - $11,010 per student, with less than 1 percent of variation in district-level PSSA proficiency attributable to instructional expenditures.
* 11th grade PSSA performance in math and reading is positively and strongly associated with the percentage of community residents with a bachelor’s degree.
* The percentage of minority students in a district has a moderate to strong negative correlation with the percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient on the 11th grade PSSA test.
* The percentage of students in low-income households in a district has a moderate to strong negative correlation with the percentage of students scoring advanced or proficient on the 11th grade PSSA test.
* These patterns remain even when Pittsburgh and Philadelphia districts are excluded from the analysis, suggesting that these are consistent patterns across the state.
* A more in depth study of 46 districts in PA and NJ suggests that there is a moderate positive relationship between higher-level math course taking and 11th grade PSSA test performance.
Previous work by the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP) reveals several impediments that may account for why we did not find an association between aggregate per pupil instruction expenditures in a district and the percentage of 11th grade PSSA math and reading proficiency. These impediments include:
* high turnover of school district administrators
* inconsistency of policy and its implementation
* insufficient external monitoring and technical support
* disorganized data management, analysis and translation to action
* poor communication vertically and horizontally within and between schools and the district
* absence of coherent and aligned k-12 curricula
* system incoherence
* lack of teacher staff capacity |
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