Student Achievement Data and School Funding

This is actually a great question, and is an issue that has been on the forefront of educational funding for decades now. It speaks, really, to equality. There are many professional educators who argue that demographic groups at the higher echelons of society receive a disproportionately high amount of funding for education than poor demographic groups. This has actually been shown to be the case throughout America. It can be proved through the very student achievement data that you ask about in this question. Students from a wealthy family, for example, are more likely to perform well in school, which would be demonstrated by the achievement data. These same students typically come from school districts and localities that receive more money for educational services and resources than do areas that have low student achievement levels. In other words, areas that demonstrate low student achievement levels tend to also be the same areas that suffer from a lack of educational funding. The two variables run parallel to one another. This can be seen to provide at issue at all levels: local, state, and national levels. Take a small county, for example: One can look at student achievement data and likely discover that certain demographic groups in society are clustered in areas where the achievement levels are low. You just build this theory up based on geographical size, and by the time you get to the national level you would like find that federal funding and grants is disproportionately given to areas that already demonstrate a high level of academic achievement.

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