Ala. Policy Institute: New Education Study First to Compare School-by-School Inputs vs. OutputsThe Alabama Policy Institute has issued this press release: For Immediate Release Contact: David Sawyer NEW EDUCATION STUDY FIRST TO COMPARE SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL INPUTS vs. OUTPUTS Lowest Performance by Highest Per-Pupil Spending Counties MONTGOMERY, AL—A 119-page report released today by the Alabama Policy Institute (API) is the first of its kind to analyze Alabama’s academic inputs vs. outputs, broken down by individual schools, counties and systems. The report, “Alabama’s Public Education Dilemma: Does Funding Influence Outcomes,” reveals an inconsistency between the inputs Alabama taxpayers and the Federal Government provide, and the academic outcomes received in return. “Most education reports only measure success by results, and do not consider the relationship between inputs (e.g. teacher pay, teacher readiness and course difficulty) and those results,” says API Vice President Jeff Fink. “This API study attempts to connect the dots for an accurate picture of the value of Alabama’s education system.” Alabama’s education investment (in other words, its “inputs”) is considerably high given the fact that Alabama teacher’s salary and benefit packages rank 19th highest in the nation when adjusted for pensions, cost-of-living and other value factors; Alabama ranks 4th in the nation in teacher to non-teacher ratio; the overwhelming majority of teachers teach their specialty; and Alabama has some of the most challenging graduation requirements. However, the results (i.e. “outputs”) do not match the inputs: Alabama students consistently score below most states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the ACT; Alabama’s graduation rates are 45th in the nation; and the state spends between $304 and $454 million per year on remedial education. But if you consider these gloomy results by individual school systems using the Score-Spending Index (SSI) methodology, you will find that students’ test scores were almost always higher where the state’s per-pupil expenditures were below average, and lower in schools that spent hundreds more dollars per child. • Greene County receives more federal money per student than other counties in the state and is also one of the poorest performing counties in the state. • On the other hand, according to the results of the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test (ARMT), the scores of fourth-grade, sixth-grade, and eighth-graders in math and reading were higher in schools where per-pupil expenditures were below the state average of $6,482 per child, including schools in the following counties: Jefferson, Lauderdale, Cullman and Monroe. • Similar outcomes were found using Alabama’s Direct Assessment of Writing (ADAW). As with the ARMT, test scores of fifth-, seventh- and tenth-graders show that writing proficiency was 40 percent to 90 percent higher than the state average among schools where, on average, less money per child was spent. In contrast, schools with the lowest levels of writing proficiency typically spent much more money per child, despite their usually being in the poorest districts. “School-by-school analyses of student outcomes on Alabama’s standardized tests show that throwing more money at these problems does not appear to be the solution,” says Dr. John R. Hill, author of the report. “In fact, the opposite seems to be true.” We invite you to view this report in its entirety on our website: www.alabamapolicy.org. The Alabama Policy Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of free markets, limited government and strong families, which are indispensable to a prosperous society. # # #
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