Reimagining Educational Adequacy: Broadening the Research Base to Inform School Finance Litigation and Policy

• In Event: 61.068 - Conceptualizing Educational Adequacy

Abstract

The notion of educational adequacy serves as a benchmark for substantial litigations and educational reforms across the United States. Scholars have found that adequacy-related reforms significantly related to gains in student achievement and increased opportunities for all students to reach state-defined learning goals. Yet, scholars contend that the concept of adequacy remains elusive. Given the positive effects the ideal of adequacy has had on policymaking, despite the inconsistency over its meaning, this conceptual paper offers a working conception of educational adequacy that expands on varying interpretations of the term, enhancing the different forms of research that scholars and policymakers may use to analyze the degree to which states have fulfilled their obligations to provide an adequate education for all students.

Author

• Matthew R. Della Sala, Purdue University