Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-l4ctd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-20T02:09:46.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

School Inputs and Educational Outcomes in North Carolina: Comparison of Static and Dynamic Analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Michael L. Waiden  and
Mark R. Sisak
Michael L. Waiden
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Mark R. Sisak
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Economics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The relationship between student achievement and school inputs has long been a subject of academic research. The general conclusion of past research is that school inputs, such as the number of teachers relative to pupils, has little impact on student academic outcomes. This paper provides a fresh look at this issue. Seventeen alternative measures of student performance in North Carolina school districts are related to a wide array of school policy inputs and socioeconomic characteristics of students and their families. Both static and dynamic analyses are performed. The key findings are (1) the school policy inputs significantly related to student achievement vary by the measure of student achievement used, (2) the joint contribution of school policy inputs to student achievement is relatively small, and (3) the results differ between the static and dynamic analyses; in particular, changes in the number of teachers relative to the number of pupils in the district have a much stronger association with student achievement in the dynamic analysis.

Keywords

public educationstudent achievement
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , December 1999 , pp. 593 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, G.M., Shughart, W.F. II and Tollison, R.D. “Educational achievement and the cost of bureaucracy.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 15(1991):29–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballou, Dale and Podgursky, Michael. Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality. Kalamazoo, Michigan: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James S.et. al.Equality of Education Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966.Google Scholar
Deller, S.C., Shields, M., and Tomberlin, D. (1994). “The role of regional cost of living differences in the regional income convergence/divergence debate.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Agricultural Economic Association, San Diego, California, August 7–10, 1994.Google Scholar
Downes, T.A. and Horowitz, J.L. (1995). “An analysis of the effect of Chicago school reform on student performance.” Economic Perspectives of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago 19(1995): 13–35.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Ronald and Ladd, Helen. “Additional evidence on how and why money matters: a production function analysis of Alabama schools.” Paper presented at a conference titled Performance-Based Approaches to School Reform, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, April 6–7, 1995.Google Scholar
Hanushek, E. “The economics of schooling: production and efficiency in the public schools.” The Journal of Economic Literature 24(1986): 1141–1177.Google Scholar
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Statistical Profile. Raleigh, North Carolina, 1991, 1992, 1993.Google Scholar
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. North Carolina Report Card. Raleigh, North Carolina, 1991, 1992, 1993.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics. Digest of Educational Statistics, 1993, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993.Google Scholar