Resources on pupil attainment

Assessing the Impact of School Resources on Pupil Attainment : 

Assessing the Impact of School Resources on Pupil Attainment Fiona Steele University of Bristol Anna Vignoles and Andrew Jenkins Institute of Education, University of London

Research questions : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 2 Research questions Do pupils in better funded schools have better outcomes? Do pupils in schools with lower pupil teacher ratios have better outcomes? And, more ambitiously, can we establish a causal relationship?

Methodological Issues : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 3 Methodological Issues Need to account for hierarchical structure 3 levels: pupils (1), schools (2), LEAs (3) Note that attainment is a pupil-level outcome, while resource variables are measured at the school level Funds are not allocated to schools at random Makes it difficult to establish whether any relationship between attainment and resources is causal

Slide 4: 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 4 Data Analyse large cohort of pupils who completed KS2 in 2000 (age 11) and KS3 in 2003 (age 14) PLASC data on 464,783 pupils and 3,011 secondary schools in England Dependent variables: KS3 maths, science, English Resource information: Expenditure per pupil and staffing ratios Includes range of control variables Good school variables Crude indicators of family background (e.g. fsm indicator) Linked to 2001 Census data

Example of Ignoring Hierarchical Structure:Effects of Expenditure per Pupil on KS3 Maths : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 5 Example of Ignoring Hierarchical Structure:Effects of Expenditure per Pupil on KS3 Maths *Effects adjusted for a large number of control variables.

Establishing Causality: Resource Allocation in the UK : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 6 Establishing Causality: Resource Allocation in the UK Funds are not allocated to schools at random Funding of schools is largely administered by LEAs Central government gives funding to LEAs for schools and other services More disadvantaged LEAs get more funding LEAs have some autonomy in education spending

Slide 7: 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 7 Selection Bias Schools with higher proportions of less able children, or children from disadvantaged backgrounds, are allocated higher levels of funding These children will tend to do worse in school anyway, so attainment in better-resourced schools will be low If we do not fully account for compensatory funding, we will underestimate a ‘true’ positive effect of school resources on attainment

Selection Bias : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 8 Selection Bias

Selection Effects at the School and LEA Level : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 9 Selection Effects at the School and LEA Level LEA level due to the way central government allocates resources to LEAs Fewer resources are given to LEAs with high mean attainment School level due to the way resources are allocated among schools within an LEA LEA gives fewer resources to schools with high mean attainment

Other Examples of Selection Bias : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 10 Other Examples of Selection Bias Effect of premarital cohabitation on risk of divorce Effect of a training scheme on unemployment rate when participation in scheme is voluntary Effect of a health intervention on child mortality rate when intervention is targeted towards areas of greatest need

Our Methodological Approach : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 11 Our Methodological Approach Model attainment jointly with resource allocation Multilevel simultaneous equations model Allows for possibility that there may be unobserved variables at school or LEA level that affect both attainment and resource allocation Multilevel model allows for selection bias operating at the LEA or school level (or both)

Effects of Expenditure per Pupil on Attainment : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 12 Effects of Expenditure per Pupil on Attainment

Slide 13: 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 13 Effects of Pupil-Teacher Ratio on Attainment

Effect Sizes : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 14 Effect Sizes For additional £1000 per pupil expenditure, expect increase in attainment of 0.07 of a level in maths and 0.2 of a level in science For reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio of one, expect increases of 0.12-0.13 of a level in maths and science (Expect improvements of 0.5 of a level per year)

Conclusions : 

CLIO Away Day 23/11/06 15 Conclusions Positive effects of additional resources on maths and science Nonsignificant or negative effects on English Need to allow for non-random nature of resource allocation; strong evidence of selection at school and LEA levels Need to allow for variation in resource (and selection) effects across subjects