How Finance Reform May Alter Teacher and School Quality – California’s $23 Billion Initiative

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

How Finance Reform May Alter Teacher and School Quality – California’s $23 Billion Initiative

Gains in school spending helped to lift achievement over the past half-century. But California’s ambitious effort – progressively distributing $23 billion in yearly funding to poorer districts – has yet to reduce disparities in learning. We theorize how administrators in districts and schools, given labor constraints and organizational practices, may fail to move quality resources to disadvantaged students. We identify the exogenous portion of California’s reform, then find that schools receiving progressively targeted funding tended to hire inexperienced teachers and disproportionately assign novices to courses serving English learners. New funding expanded the array of courses in high schools, as access to college-preparatory classes by ELs declined. These unfair mechanisms operated most strongly in high-needs schools serving concentrations of poor
students.

Author

• JoonHo Lee, University of California - Berkeley