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Can, and Should, an Outcomes-Based Approach Be Used to Determine Funding for Special Education?

Chris Needham

Journal of Education Finance2023https://doi.org/10.1353/jef.2023.a928646article
ABDC C
Weight
0.43

What the paper says

abstract: As state and federal governments place an increasing emphasis on academic outcomes, should they be used to determine adequate funding for students with disabilities (SWD)? Although adequacy is determined through a political process, it requires an understanding of cost – the expenditure required to reach a specific outcome. Therefore, with the complexity of statistical modeling this study represents an initial foray into whether an outcomes-based approach can be used to analyze student outcomes in relation to funding for SWD. Focused on North Carolina, I apply a cost function approach to account for cost differentials coming from variations in resource prices, student needs, and efficiency (Duncombe & Yinger, 2008). While the findings show a significant positive relationship between math growth and funding for SWD, there were no significant relationships with three other outcomes. Additionally, difficulties in modeling mean the findings are only correlational. Given that most SWD are in general education classes where the focus is on academic outcomes, justifying more funding for SWD requires a recognition of cost through some form of outcome measure. The questions remain, though: what outcomes should be related to funding for SWD and whether the difficulty in modeling the relationship can be resolved, giving support to a causal relationship.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1353/jef.2023.a928646

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@article{chris2023,
  title        = {{Can, and Should, an Outcomes-Based Approach Be Used to Determine Funding for Special Education?}},
  author       = {Chris Needham},
  journal      = {Journal of Education Finance},
  year         = {2023},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1353/jef.2023.a928646},
}

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Can, and Should, an Outcomes-Based Approach Be Used to Determine Funding for Special Education?

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Evidence weight

0.43

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.20 × 0.4 = 0.08
M · momentum0.80 × 0.15 = 0.12
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.