| Since the state of Missouri has twice been sued by the Committee for Educational Equity, this study was undertaken to determine if district wealth or district expenditures have any statistical impact on student performance. All of the subjects are Missouri public school districts and all of the data reviewed was from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or from the internet school ranking site, Schooldigger.com. Two data sets were reviewed. First the Assessed Valuation per Pupil, the Expenditure per Pupil and the Annual Performance Report data from the time of the first lawsuit were reviewed for any correlations. Second, the Assessed Valuation per Pupil and the Expenditures per Pupil from the time of the second lawsuit were reviewed for potential correlation to the Schooldigger.com district ranking. The only significant correlation found was the negative correlation between Assessed Valuation per Pupil and Schooldigger.com ranking (-.263 with Sig. of .000). The study concluded that student achievement cannot be statistically tied to district wealth or expenditures, within the given parameters. |
