The relationship between expenditure and student achievement in Seventh-day Adventist K--8 schools in the United States

School finance literature is replete with studies that investigate the relationship between spending and student achievement. Some researchers have found positive relationships between the two variables while others found spending to have no effect on achievement. However, few such research studies have examined private schools, and no such study has ever been conducted on Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) schools. This study asks the question: Is there a relationship between spending and student achievement in SDA schools? This is an ex-post facto quantitative research project that analyzed data from the CognitiveGenesis Research Project (CG) as well as financial statements information from Adventist schools to answer the research question. Using linear regression modeling, the study found no relationship between spending and achievement, even when controlled for the students' ability, the socio-economic status of parents, the education level of fathers, the education level of mothers, the education level of teachers within the school, the student-teacher ratio, and the school's sources of revenue. Subscales for achievement (reading, language, writing, math, science, and social studies) were also tested, and no relationships were observed with per-pupil spending. One co-predictor, family income, was positively correlated with achievement. This finding is in agreement with numerous public sector studies that found income to be positively associated with academic achievement.