Where does money matter: The impact of expenditures on student achievement

For more than four decades, a continued debate over the effects of increased funding for education producing improved student achievement results has ensued across the nation. Does more money spent on education deliver higher student outcomes? Despite the advancements in fiscal research, a definite conclusion to this deliberation has not been postulated. More recent research, however, has tended to focus on the research allocation methods within the educational system. Thus, a new question has risen as to where funding makes the largest impact on student achievement.;Therefore, this research focused on the more narrowed outcomes of expenditures, in the areas of instruction and extra/co-curricular activities, on improved student performance on the TAKS and SAT assessments during the 2008-09 school year. This research was designed as a quantitative study utilizing Pearson correlations to attempt to find a relationship between expenditures of 697 Texas K-I2 school districts that reported the instructional and extra-curricular budget expenditures and student performance data on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) assessments. The findings of this study from the purposeful sample population concluded with a small to moderate correlation between instructional expenditures and student performance while showing no relationship between expenses on extra/co-curricular spending with student achievement. Results of the data analysis were summarized and recommendations for further research were conveyed. This study may be utilized as a resource to help policymakers and educators make informed decisions on future resource allocation practices that promote student achievement.