A Factorial Analysis Of Certain State School Finance Goals

Author : Andrew Edward Carhart
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (968 download)

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Download or read book School Finance Decisions and Academic Performance written by Andrew Edward Carhart and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2013, California enacted the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and set the most significant change to the state's education system in the past forty years in motion. The LCFF reformed the state's education finance system by reducing categorical funding programs, creating new formula funding mechanisms for students with the most significant needs, and providing flexibility to local decision makers. Since the LCFF has abolished or consolidated a majority of the categorical programs that the Legislature built up over the course of three decades, current administrators will be tested with newfound autonomy. In addition, school districts will be held accountable for their budgetary choices under the LCFF through Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), which must detail school wide goals, specific actions, performance measures, and expenditure projections to estimate what effect school policies will have on academic achievement. In this thesis, I use the basis of a regression analysis to provide a framework for rationalizing and prioritizing fiscal decisions and assess what choices can provide the best academic outcomes for California's schools and students. Using two regression methods -- ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic -- I examine the relationships among school, student, and teacher characteristics, test scores, and exemplary school performance using extensive data from primary and secondary schools in the state of Texas. The OLS regression analysis demonstrates a clear relationship between school expenditures in certain functions and average standardized test scores, while controlling for the complex interactions among the many other inputs of the education process. Based on the results of this first OLS analysis, I also perform a separate secondary regression analysis using a logistic regression model that demonstrates there is a non linear relationship exists between expenditures and exemplary performing schools, with significantly differing effects based on the majority demographic composition of the school.