Document Type

Capstone Project

Publication Date

5-10-2022

Abstract

According to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, about 58% of funds received by K-12 school districts throughout the state come from local taxes, while only 38% came from the state (Pennsylvania Department of Education [PDE]. This study aims to investigate what impact if any, Pennsylvania state funding has on educational outcomes in K-12 districts. The three main educational outcomes this study focuses on are Graduation Rates, Test Scores and Postsecondary rates. In addition to state funding, other socio-economic and socio-demographic factors (number of housing units, households with single parents with children, median age, households with no internet access, rural/urban dwellers , % of parents that are homeowners, race, poverty rate, households with married couples with children) were considered to determine their impact on educational outcomes. All the data used in this study were provided by the Center for rural Pennsylvania. The data includes all rural and urban counties in Pennsylvania with the exception of Allegheny, Montgomery, Beaver and Schuylkill counties. Linear regression analyses were utilized to examine which selected condition of socio-economic and socio demographic variables best predicted certain educational outcomes. Results indicated statistically significant decrease in educational outcomes (Test Scores and Post-Secondary rates) as state funding increased

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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