Allocating resources efficiently and equitably in public primary and secondary schools has been an elusive goal. Among the primary reasons is the surprising scarcity of data appropriate for establishing the relative importance of various schooling inputs. As a result, recent research to discover how increasing spending might affect the quality of schooling and how improving the quality of schooling might affect how much children learn has reanalyzed old data or has relied on data sets that are very limited in size and scope. Generally, aside from a few exceptions that this Article cites, the findings -of such studies have been ambiguous and unpersuasive. Breaking the usual pattern, the analysis here examines a large and unusually complete set of data that the author has assembled for the state of Texas. The data include a wide range of indices for almost 900 districts, in which over 2.4 million students attend school.' This Article addresses (1) determinants of student test scores, (2) factors that influence which districts attract the most effective teachers, and (3) how and why money matters. Overall, empirical results here reveal a complex pattern but one that is more consistent with conventional wisdom among educators than the findings of most past studies. The study has implications for all states that are working to bring quality and equity to public education. (Author/publisher)
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