Do increased resources increase educational attainment during a period of rising expenditure? Evidence from English secondary schools using a dynamic panel analysis

This article estimates the effects of school expenditure on school performance at Key Stage 4 in England, over the period 2003-07 during which real per pupil expenditure increased rapidly. It adds to previous investigations by using dynamic panel analysis to: exploit time series data on individual schools that only recently has become available; adjust for the potential endogeneity not only of expenditure but also of other determinants of performance; and differentiate the short-run and the (higher) long-run attainment effects of spending changes. Consistent with other recent work, the article reports a generally significant but small effect of expenditure on school performance, but it also finds that the effect varies between specialist and non-specialist schools, with the effect on the latter being larger. Further, the article identifies significant dynamics in the school improvement process, quantifies the long-run effect of expenditure changes, suggests that spending effects increase with socio-economic disadvantage, and quantifies absence effects.

Awards:
The British Educational Research Journal “Paper of the Year 2011” awards, made at the 2012 Conference of the British Educational

Research Association: “Commended” paper. (Each year, in the “Best Paper” awards, one research paper is selected as the “Best paper” and two more are “Commended”).