School Accountability, Underfunding, and Inefficiency

This paper investigated the role of resource levels and efficiency of resource use in the underperformance of schools designated as Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Using a novel cost-modeling approach, we estimated the amount of spending needed by schools to make meaningful improvement and compared this with actual spending to gauge underfunding. We estimated efficiency by comparing actual outcomes with expected outcomes, considering resource levels, demographics, and other characteristics. Our findings revealed that CSI schools, which disproportionately serve high-need students, are both underfunded and inefficient. Improving efficiency could address nearly a third of the performance gap between CSI schools and the statewide average. However, underfunding was the larger contributor to underperformance, with the additional funding needs of CSI schools vastly exceeding the additional ~$400 per student these schools currently receive in school-improvement funding.