SPENDING AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
OVERVIEW...
The relationship between spending and student achievement remains incomplete and confusing, but education dollars appear to be best spent in hiring and keeping the highest quality teachers, providing meaningful professional development, and maintaining school facilities to permit safe and comfortable learning environments. Maintaining low teacher-student ratios in the early grades also has a positive impact on student achievement but at a rather high cost (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.304).
Recent History Involving Funding and Achievement - In 1966, the Coleman Report changed the public’s attitude about education spending. Funded by the federal government as a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Coleman study focused on questions of racial segregation and educational inequality by examining the adequacy of physical facilities, curriculum, teacher characteristics, and student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Politicians and social scientists originally interpreted the Coleman study findings as showing that schools had little impact on student achievement when compared to the impact of family background. The education and political debate about money and students’ educational achievement continues. Studies demonstrate conflicting results. One 2003 four-state study showed a strong relationship between resources and achievement while a 2011 Vermont study showed a positive impact on math, but not reading or writing (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.304).
What the Research Shows about Money and Student Achievement - The data shows that increased spending targeted to "delivery of quality instruction directly to students" produces the greatest achievement return for the dollars spent. Increased spending on teacher quality, professional development for staff, reduced class size and school size, increased teacher salaries, and improved school facilities produce a significant return on investment for fostering student achievement gains.Research confirms that aside from a well-articulated curriculum and a safe and orderly environment, the individual teacher is the single most influential school factor in students’ learning. Consistently working with highly effective teachers can overcome the academic limitations placed on students by their family backgrounds. Educators and policy makers widely agree that a clear predictive relationship exists between teachers’ basic skills, especially verbal ability, and student achievement (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.284-86). Also, a growing body of research shows that improving teacher knowledge and teaching skills is essential to raising student performance. Since students spend most of their school hours either interacting with teachers or working under teachers’ direction, what teachers know and can do directly affects the quality of student learning. The National School Boards Foundation calls investment in teacher learning,“ the primary policy lever that school boards have to raise student achievement.” Unfortunately, education spends only about one half of one percent of its budget on professional development (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.292).
Reduced Class Size - Teachers and parents have long known that, all else being equal, smaller class size allows teachers to spend more time meeting individual students’ needs. The impact of class size on student achievement has been studied for many years. Tennessee’s 1985-89 study successfully controlled experiments of class-size reduction in primary grades and showed positive results. The student-teacher achievement ratio, or STAR, program involved more than 12,000 students over 4 years using fully qualified, experienced teachers and a relatively homogeneous student population. This highly controlled longitudinal study indicates that attending small classes for 3 consecutive years in grades K-3 is associated with sustained academic benefits in all school subjects through grade 8 (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.293-94).
Teacher Salaries - To be sure, the issue of teacher quality, teacher salaries, and student achievement is controversial. For decades, a small and declining portion of the most cognitively skilled graduates chose to become teachers. Virtually no one doubts that higher salaries will attract brighter individuals into a profession. Many continue to ask whether teacher salaries are sufficient to attract the best graduates into teaching, while others presume a likely link between relative wage declines and “a drop-off in average teacher quality.” Public school teachers earn less than similarly educated and experienced professionals, and this disadvantage has grown substantially over the last few decades (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.299-300).
Related Scripture - "As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15 ESV)
Scriptural Significance - Patience will be needed in the life of a spiritually-orientated person when it comes to waiting for good things to happen. This, unfortunately, will probably be the case for controlling interests to get the idea that investment garners return; even in education. Investing some God-given faith into the educational system is not a loss proposition. On the contrary, it needs all the help it can get! If the good seed is planted, then in God's time, it will bear fruit; our job is to wait but be active spiritually in prayer.
Leadership Significance - Faith-based leaders know that the concept of investment and student success are immeasurably tied to each other. The Lord smiles when a child does well because of a leadership stance taken by one of his faithful. We all know how he feels when that effort is not made and it is not a good outcome. This is not just an issue about money, but rather commitment to improve the system by being faithful to the children, their parents, staff, and oneself.
The relationship between spending and student achievement remains incomplete and confusing, but education dollars appear to be best spent in hiring and keeping the highest quality teachers, providing meaningful professional development, and maintaining school facilities to permit safe and comfortable learning environments. Maintaining low teacher-student ratios in the early grades also has a positive impact on student achievement but at a rather high cost (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.304).
Recent History Involving Funding and Achievement - In 1966, the Coleman Report changed the public’s attitude about education spending. Funded by the federal government as a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Coleman study focused on questions of racial segregation and educational inequality by examining the adequacy of physical facilities, curriculum, teacher characteristics, and student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Politicians and social scientists originally interpreted the Coleman study findings as showing that schools had little impact on student achievement when compared to the impact of family background. The education and political debate about money and students’ educational achievement continues. Studies demonstrate conflicting results. One 2003 four-state study showed a strong relationship between resources and achievement while a 2011 Vermont study showed a positive impact on math, but not reading or writing (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.304).
What the Research Shows about Money and Student Achievement - The data shows that increased spending targeted to "delivery of quality instruction directly to students" produces the greatest achievement return for the dollars spent. Increased spending on teacher quality, professional development for staff, reduced class size and school size, increased teacher salaries, and improved school facilities produce a significant return on investment for fostering student achievement gains.Research confirms that aside from a well-articulated curriculum and a safe and orderly environment, the individual teacher is the single most influential school factor in students’ learning. Consistently working with highly effective teachers can overcome the academic limitations placed on students by their family backgrounds. Educators and policy makers widely agree that a clear predictive relationship exists between teachers’ basic skills, especially verbal ability, and student achievement (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.284-86). Also, a growing body of research shows that improving teacher knowledge and teaching skills is essential to raising student performance. Since students spend most of their school hours either interacting with teachers or working under teachers’ direction, what teachers know and can do directly affects the quality of student learning. The National School Boards Foundation calls investment in teacher learning,“ the primary policy lever that school boards have to raise student achievement.” Unfortunately, education spends only about one half of one percent of its budget on professional development (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.292).
Reduced Class Size - Teachers and parents have long known that, all else being equal, smaller class size allows teachers to spend more time meeting individual students’ needs. The impact of class size on student achievement has been studied for many years. Tennessee’s 1985-89 study successfully controlled experiments of class-size reduction in primary grades and showed positive results. The student-teacher achievement ratio, or STAR, program involved more than 12,000 students over 4 years using fully qualified, experienced teachers and a relatively homogeneous student population. This highly controlled longitudinal study indicates that attending small classes for 3 consecutive years in grades K-3 is associated with sustained academic benefits in all school subjects through grade 8 (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.293-94).
Teacher Salaries - To be sure, the issue of teacher quality, teacher salaries, and student achievement is controversial. For decades, a small and declining portion of the most cognitively skilled graduates chose to become teachers. Virtually no one doubts that higher salaries will attract brighter individuals into a profession. Many continue to ask whether teacher salaries are sufficient to attract the best graduates into teaching, while others presume a likely link between relative wage declines and “a drop-off in average teacher quality.” Public school teachers earn less than similarly educated and experienced professionals, and this disadvantage has grown substantially over the last few decades (Owings & Kaplan, 2013, p.299-300).
Related Scripture - "As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15 ESV)
Scriptural Significance - Patience will be needed in the life of a spiritually-orientated person when it comes to waiting for good things to happen. This, unfortunately, will probably be the case for controlling interests to get the idea that investment garners return; even in education. Investing some God-given faith into the educational system is not a loss proposition. On the contrary, it needs all the help it can get! If the good seed is planted, then in God's time, it will bear fruit; our job is to wait but be active spiritually in prayer.
Leadership Significance - Faith-based leaders know that the concept of investment and student success are immeasurably tied to each other. The Lord smiles when a child does well because of a leadership stance taken by one of his faithful. We all know how he feels when that effort is not made and it is not a good outcome. This is not just an issue about money, but rather commitment to improve the system by being faithful to the children, their parents, staff, and oneself.