A Critical Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of Budgeting Models in Creating Equity for High School Students in a Large Urban School District

The purpose of this study was to examine whether equity for students could be measured in high schools located in a large urban school district using publically accessible quantitative data. The motivation for the study was a seemingly inequitable distribution of resources in the district, which employed Student-Based Budgeting. In the 22 high schools studied, no schools were found to be more over-resourced than expected compared to a normal distribution of schools. However, some schools were under-resourced. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the variables best predicting student scores on achievement tests in math and reading were two sociodemographic variables: percentage of students in special education (statistically significant for both reading and math) and percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch (statistically significant for reading). After controlling for the sociodemographic variables, the variables used to measure equity were entered into the regression equation. It was found that the higher the nonpersonnel expenditures per student, the lower the students’ achievement scores. This result was statistically significant for reading scores, and approached statistical significance for math scores. Also, the higher the student-teacher ratio, the students’ math achievement scores (this result approached statistical significance). The results for the equity variables, taken together, might indicate a profile of larger schools with better achievement scores than smaller schools; correlations among the equity variables showed that the larger schools had higher student-teacher ratios and lower nonpersonnel expenditures per student than smaller schools. Note that smaller schools tend to be poorer than larger schools