Assessing the Effects of School Resources on Student Performance: An Update
Abstract
The relationship between school resources and student achievement has been controversial, in large part because it calls into question a variety of traditional policy approaches. This article reviews the available educational production literature, updating previous summaries. The close to 400 studies of student achievement demonstrate that there is not a strong or consistent relationship between student performance and school resources, at least after variations in family inputs are taken into account. These results are also reconciled with meta-analytic approaches and with other investigations on how school resources affect labor market outcomes. Simple resource policies hold little hope for improving student outcomes.
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- Authors
- Hanushek, E. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Rochester (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hanushek, Eric A.
- ORCID
- Hanushek, Eric A.
- Venue
- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
- Published
- 1997-06
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 141-164
- ISSN
- 0162-3737 (ISSN-L)
- 1935-1062
- OpenAlex
- W2171013128
- Cited by
- 1,612
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 57 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 55 · 2016: 104 · 2015: 96 · 2014: 91 · 2013: 87 · 2012: 84
- FWCI
- 147.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Environments and Student Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Politics, Economics, and Education Policy
- Keywords
- school resources, academic performance, educational production, school funding policy, labor market outcomes
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