Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding
Lawmaker skeptical of correlation between education spending and student outcomes
THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
The K-12 Student Success Committee met to wade through a morass of data Tuesday. The panel is charged with gathering and analyzing information that will likely be funneled into the expected upcoming debate over a new formula.
Kansas student test scores rose and fell with funding, one of the state’s leading education advocacy groups said Tuesday as one lawmaker expressed skepticism a correlation exists.
Questions of whether spending translates into student achievement hung over a legislative meeting after lawmakers heard of new, lower assessment scores.
The answers to those questions may ultimately affect how Kansas funds its schools, with the Legislature looking to potentially craft a new spending formula next year after scrapping the old formula in favor of a temporary block grant system this past spring.
The K-12 Student Success Committee met to wade through a morass of data Tuesday. The panel is charged with gathering and analyzing information that will likely be funneled into the expected upcoming debate over a new formula.
Among the data: scores from the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The latest test, which used a sample of Kansas students, found that in several areas scores either declined or remained relatively flat.
Rep. Jerry Lunn, R-Overland Park, said spending in K-12 from 2012 to 2015 had increased by $312 million while other agencies and areas declined.
“Which tells me that there’s really not a great correlation between how much you spend and the outcome you generate,” Lunn said.
Just hours later, however, the Kansas Association of School Boards released a new analysis showing the state’s performance on national tests rose and fell with funding.
According to KASB, student performance on national math and reading tests improved between 2003 and 2007, leveled off from 2007 to 2011 and has fallen over the past four years. The trends follow funding patterns, the analysis said, with performance increasing during periods of funding increases and declining during periods of flat funding.
The KASB analysis also found the total amount of money spent had a stronger correlation with performance than the percent of money spent on instruction. KASB advocacy director and lobbyist Mark Tallman presented the findings to lawmakers during a lunch meeting in the Capitol separate from the committee meeting.
“These results to us indicate that on average, general tendency, the states that spend more on these factors have better results. That’s true of all students,” Tallman said.
In addition to the KASB analysis, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, pointed to a Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding | CJOnline.com:
