Effect of Local District Expenditure in Education per Pupil on SAT Scores

Abstract

Although it seems logical to assume a positive correlation between school funding and student achievement, past studies suggested mixed results. The purpose of this study is to reexamine this association between expenditure and performance. To that end, we investigated various assessment measures and found one that best served as a proxy for student achievement – average district SAT scores, converted from ACT. Data from several states were collected and analyzed initially, but we narrowed down to the State of Illinois – the location with most complete data for our research purpose and least data irregularities. Illinois is the chosen population, each school district represents a statistic, and there are three districts defined – rural, suburban, and populous. Our research concluded with a similar observation by the previous literature: more money invested in education does not necessarily translate to higher test scores. However, our finding suggests that when population is taken into account, the more populous the district is, the greater and positive correlation may be present between spending and performance.