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School districts
Who Benefits from Local Financing of Public Services? A Causal Analysis
Tags: Human capital, School districtsThe efficiency-equity trade-offs in public service delivery may be influenced by the dependency of local governments on their own resources rather than inter-governmental grants. School districts in the United States are expected both to produce human capital efficiently and to provide… more →
Local Democracy Matters: How Deliberative Culture Shapes Public Evaluations of Local Government and Local Government Performance
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: School districtsIs there democratic accountability to the public at the local level, and if so, how does it work? We know that a major part of democratic ability depends on citizens being able to properly evaluate government based on government performance, particularly at the local level. However, we know much… more →
Turnover at the Top: Estimating the Effects of Principal Turnover on Student, Teacher, and School Outcomes
Tags: Principals, School districtsOne in five schools loses its principal each year. Despite the prevalence of principal turnover, little empirical research has examined its effects on school outcomes. Because principal turnover may occur in response to or contemporaneous with a downturn in student achievement, the effect of a… more →
The Effects of Student Growth Data on School District Choice: Evidence from a Survey Experiment
Topics: School ChoiceWe conduct an online survey experiment in which participants are asked to imagine that they are parents moving to a new metropolitan area. They then choose between the five largest school districts in that area. All participants receive demographic data for each district. In addition, some… more →
School Boards and Education Production: Evidence from Randomized Ballot Order
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Leadership, School districtsWe examine the causal influence of educators elected to the school board on local education production. The key empirical challenge is that school board composition is endogenously determined through the electoral process. To overcome this, we develop a novel research design that leverages… more →
The Effect of Increased Funding on Student Achievement: Evidence From Texas's Small District Adjustment
Tags: School districtsWe leverage an obscure set of rules in Texas’s school funding formula granting some districts additional revenue as a function of size and sparsity. We use variation from kinks and discontinuities in this formula to ask how districts spend additional discretionary funds, and whether these… more →
School District Operational Spending and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Tax Elections in Seven States
Tags: School districts, AssessmentWe use close tax elections to estimate the impact of school district funding increases on operational spending and student outcomes across seven states. Districts with passing levies directed new revenue toward support services and instructor salaries but did not increase teacher staffing levels… more →