The relationship between school spending and academic performance is one that is constantly being assessed and evaluated. More rarely however, is the evaluation of how efficiently that spending is taking place. This paper used a method known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), to examine how efficiently Florida elementary schools were spending their funds to produce student gains in reading achievement. This paper found that schools (n=1,446) were performing on average at an approximate 61% relative efficiency level for the 2009-2010 school year. This paper then used OLS regression and various school-level demographic characteristics to see if school efficiency is able to be predicted, finding that student race, free and reduced lunch status, presence of exceptionalities, and school size to all be significant predictors of school-level efficiency. Finally, this paper examined the relationship between these differing efficiency scores and student individual differences, using a sample of n=677,386 Florida public elementary school students. In doing so, significant interactions between school efficiency and a student’s exceptionality and free and reduced lunch status were found, indicating the negative impact of having an exceptionality or being free and reduced lunch status to be further increased in lower efficiency schools. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / 2019 / September 30, 2019. / DEA, efficiency, ESE, exceptionalities, reading, socioeconomic status / Includes bibliographical references. / Sara A. Hart, Professor Directing Thesis; Chris W. Schatschneider, Committee Member; Andrea L. Meltzer, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_752379 |
| Contributors | Shero, Jeffrey S. A. (author), Hart, Sara (professor directing thesis), Schatschneider, Christopher (committee member), Meltzer, Andrea L. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (48 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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