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As I read this article, I had more and more questions. I wonder about the percentage of each dollar total, meaning are states spending 30% on teacher salary, 15% on instruction materials, 10% on technology, etc or is it all mixed up and different for all. I assume it's different for all states even districts. It's not about the total money that is spent its about how is spent with purpose. What isMN spending differently where we are producing higher test results?

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My takeaway from this reading is that If I were a superintendent for a school district in Alaska or New York, after reading this article, I would be curious to know how some states are getting better test scores with less revenue. It would be interesting to see the breakdown (i.e. like a pie chart) of how each state spends money on education.  Maybe a pie chart comparison could reveal how a state like Minnesota, operates in a more cost efficient manner than Alaska or New York. Additionally the article makes mention of the progress that DC has made over the years,  it would be beneficial to see how far the 20 states have come over a period of time, (say 5 years).  Although having the longitudinal data would probably not change the answer much, it would be interesting to see the level of progression (or regression) that each of the states have made from year 1 to year 5.

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Katie R. - I have always been interested in the correlation (or lack thereof) of spending vs achievement. The lack of correlation indicates that it is not so much the dollars spent, but how they are spent that leads to student achievement. This ties to benefit maximization that we've read about in our text - that budgets need to provide the greatest good for the most students. In other words, when tough budget decisions have to be made we need to ask ourselves, what cuts will have the least negative impact on student achievement? Anecdotally, I think when districts have had to cut budgets and make their dollar go further, they often bring more value out of each dollar spent. When a budget is limited, people need to think more strategically about how and why we allocate funds. I think sometimes when there is more budget than necessary, spending could be less strategic with less consideration given to cost benefit.

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Amber Zimmer: After reading this article, I am noticing that spending more money does not necessarily equate to improved student outcomes.  I am wondering about where the money is spent in the schools that see higher reading proficiency, for example.  Is it a specific curriculum? How are teachers instructing?  How are the funds allocated to bring the "best bang for the buck"?  Do those states attract more "highly qualified" teachers? In reading this, my own district was brought to mind.  We are in a massive budget cut plan ($18 million over 3 years).  This article reminded me that it's not more money we need, it's better instruction for our students.

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Jackie Lawson: After reading out text and this article, I was not entirely surprised by the data. As we know, it's not how much money, but what you do with it. It's very possible that some of the states that spend more money per pupil (yet have lower achievement testing results) have budgets that are only loosely linked to a school improvement plan, or that money is being spent on things that are "flashy," yet not effective. For example, I think about some some districts that boast about their 1:1 technology initiatives, yet do not use the technology in a way that increases student achievement/outcomes. This article serves to remind us that we must put our money toward identified priority areas, then critically examine the data to ensure that the budget is achieving its intended purpose. If it is not, then changes must be made.

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I think this article has a narrow perspective and doesn't do enough to elaborate on the numerous other factors that have been brought up by my classmates. First, cost of living or cost of resources (Alaska) are a huge reason why costs per pupil need to be so high in areas like New York, DC, or New Jersey. If it costs two- to three-times as much for me to live in Manhattan, it stands to reason that teacher salaries would be two- to three-times higher, thus driving up education expenses. Second, without disaggregated data it's difficult to claim that per pupil spending does or does not correlate with better student outcomes. I'm sure we are all aware of the vast difference between academic achievement here in Minnesota between white students and students of color. This data from Minneapolis Public Schools illustrates this point well. Spending the same amount per student but getting different results is a strong counter-argument to a correlation between per-pupil spending and achievement. Finally, this article doesn't take into account resources spent on education from outside public funding. Parent with the financial means to do so can invest time and resources into extracurricular activities, tutoring, and summer programming to supplement whatever is spent by the government on education. This will drive up achievement scores, but won't be factored into per pupil spending. A much more persuasive article would be to look at a correlation between property values and student achievement.

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Randi:
After reading this article, I am left with more questions than answers. Minnesota does NOT lead the nation in per pupil spending, actually New York does. With that said, test scores in New York were very low, including lower than the National Average and Minnesota. I have some questions with the data though. We are measuring achievement by test scores (and it seems like solely that)? What about graduation rates? Or any other data point? There was also a question raised about increasing the money to decrease the achievement gap, money is helpful but it needs to not just be thrown at the problem, rather intentionally planned for. Really interesting read!

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It’s interesting to see that there is no clearly direct ratio between school spending and school achievement.

Minnesota’s $11,949 per pupil spending was above the national average, but well below the $21,000 spent on students in New York and nearly double the $6,575 spent by Utah.

Compared to the North Star state’s spending, New York spent 77.5 percent more per pupil. Alaska and D.C. spent 69 percent and 62 percent more. Yet, Minnesota students' reading and math proficiency were significantly higher than other three states.

Utah—who shelled out the lowest amount per pupil at $ 6575, had 40 percent of fourth and eighth graders demonstrate proficiency in reading and math versus Mississippi’s 24 percent where the spending in 2015 was $8,456 per student.

There is no doubt that there are some other factors that impact student achievement. Spending more money on the program could be helpful but not direct factor to increase school’s achievement.

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This article reminded me that success is more about building relationships than stuff.  In a recent PD we had to distinguish between the elements of learning that are most effective.  The PD Activity revealed how the tangibles in a school are the lowest on the list of impacting learning.  It is about the experiences, the consistency, the dialogue, the application and most importantly the relationships founded on trust.  Although before reading this article I thought that we were closer to New York in per pupil spending than we actually are.  It brings to mind something my superintendent mentioned during my interview with him.  He said that the cost of running a suburban school district like ours is exponentially more expensive than running a school district in rural Minnesota.  This makes sense in conjunction with the article when considering places like Utah where the cost of living is lower than New York.  However, in states where it is high, I would like to see a connection between cost per pupil and the achievement rates.  Regardless of cost of living an audit of effective practices should be systematically reviewed.

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My first take away was that more money doesn't mean better achievement.  This takes me back to one of the books I am reading about how better student achievement comes from better teaching.  Yes, I am sure the money helps in some way, but it clearly isn't the most important way to make sure that students achieve more.        I also wonder about the data.  Since there is no disaggregated, who are the students that are achieving and being proficient?  When we look at data like this, I wonder about how the achievement gap looks in those states too.

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Danielle DanielsThis is a tough question, but obvious question! Does more money bring more efficiency, not necessarily, just more opportunity. What we did not take into account a lot of unknowns, that could factor in why some states were more efficient than others. When schools have lower efficient rates there should be a full analysis on "why". If it is because of resources, declines in staff, or effective teachers, then money should be put into these schools, creating opportunity for more professional development or qualified staff, even potential interventionist. What we do know is that schools don't need to spend 20k to perform, but we must assume they have access to opportunity and families or communities with the capacity to support necessary needs.

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Meg Schneeman: I thought this article was interesting because it reminded me that money does not equal success. Rather, it's the work that is put in at each school and the focus on what is important during the instructional process that will cause success. Therefore, using the money to provide teachers with meaningful PD that will help all students learn seems to be an answer to how schools can increase achievement data on standardized tests. One thing I was wondering about was the tests used to collect data: are the same across the country or does each state have its own test? If so, are these figures reliable pieces of data?

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Jennie: Jessica, I had similar wonderings. Because the cost of living is higher for a number of varied reasons in states like NY and Alaska, does the cost of educating these students also increase, and is reflected in the per pupil spending. In states like Alaska, transportation, nutrition services, and heat all must increase per pupil spending. It would be interesting to compare spending across school districts in Utah and Mississippi to see if these revealed important information about how money should be spent when comparing low spending/low achieving to low spending/ average achieving schools.

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Jessica: This article was very interesting to me. I kept asking myself why the states at the top of the list, like NY, AK and D of C are spending so much per pupil? Is there a reason they need to? Are the economies (cost of living, etc..) in those states just higher than others? I'm sure there is more information out there about why their spending is so high, but I'm curious if there is no way around it, otherwise, why wouldn't they try and lower their per pupil spending?

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Chris Olson I am reminded that spending is not the only determinant of school success. It would be interesting to dive deeper into these figures. For example, The cost of living is much higher in New York and California than it is in Mississippi and Utah for example. Just wondering how that plays into costs per pupil.

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Katie: After viewing the article one takeaway that I had was that it seems like $ per pupil doesn't always correlate to better academic achievement (which doesn't shock me). I think that the money per pupil has to be spent in the RIGHT ways that address student needs. States that have large $ per pupil and not a lot of achievement seem like a red flag to me. What are they spending money on and how well are they tracking data to determine was is/isn't working?

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