August 20, 2024
Statement: Improving SOL Scores Follows Funding Increases; Further Improvements Necessary
Levi Goren, Director of Research and Education Policy at The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis (TCI), released the following statement regarding today’s SOL test score release:
“Even though test scores aren’t the only measure of our students’ success, it’s great to see the increases that were reported today by Governor Youngkin. We know from the research that sustained funding increases lead to higher test scores and improvements in other student outcomes, particularly for students who are facing the highest barriers. It may be that we’re starting to see some of the rewards from the recent increases in state support for students.
“We also see that we still have a long way to go to make sure that students facing higher barriers, including students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English language learners, have the resources they need to thrive. While today’s scores were promising for some of these students, we know that one strong year of improvement cannot make up for the continued impact of years of insufficient funding. Sustained increases in state funding would help lift test scores and other outcomes for students facing greater barriers. We look forward to continuing to work with students, parents, teachers, and policymakers to build the future our children deserve.”
Major recent research on funding and test scores:
- Jackson, C. Kirabo, and Claire L. Mackevicius. 2024. “What Impacts Can We Expect from School Spending Policy? Evidence from Evaluations in the United States.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 412–46.
- This meta-analysis of a comprehensive set of studies of the impacts of US K-12 public school spending on student outcomes found that, on average, a policy increasing spending by $1,000 per pupil for four years improves test scores by 0.0316 standard deviations and college-going by 2.8 percentage points, with more impact for economically disadvantaged students than for economically advantaged students.
- Biasi, Barbara. 2023. “School Finance Equalization Increases Intergenerational Mobility,” Journal of Labor Economics, 41:1, 1-38
- This study found that school funding equalization – that is, equity in school funding – has a large effect on the mobility of low-income students. It also found that equalization is more effective at promoting intergenerational mobility if it happens at the elementary school level than at the high school level.
- Lafortune, Julien, Jesse Rothstein, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. 2018. “School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10 (2): 1–26.
- This study found that school funding adequacy reforms lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases in spending in low-income school districts and that these reforms cause increases in the achievement of students in these low-income districts, phasing in gradually over the years following the reform.
- Jackson, C. Kirabo, Rucker C. Johnson, and Claudia Persico. 2016. “The Effects of School Spending on Educational and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from School Finance Reforms,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(1): 157–218.
- This study found that a 10 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all twelve years of public school leads to about 7 percent higher wages, and a 3.2 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; effects are much more pronounced for children from low-income families.
