Chapter 8: Examining School-Level Expenditures and School Performance: The Case of New York City

In recent years, a consensus has begun to emerge that the ways in which schools allocate resources can be a critical factor in school effectiveness. Using an extensive database of school-level expenditures for New York City public elementary schools, this chapter compares the ways in which high-performing schools and low-performing schools allocate their resources. The authors’ evidence suggests that, perhaps because of limited flexibility to allocate resources, expenditure patterns tend to be quite similar across schools. While base funding exhibits relatively consistent expenditure patterns, expenditures funded by state and local categorical grants exhibit somewhat more variation. High-performing schools allocate more of these resources, on average, to instructional support, professional development, and educational paraprofessionals, with similar patterns evident in subdistrict allocations.