Family Background, Secondary School Expenditure, and Student Ability

Abstract

Data on a large sample of high school seniors are used to estimate the relationship between ability test scores and various dimensions of educational input. The inputs examined include measures of each student's family background, the background of other students at the high school attended, and components of expenditure per student at the high school attended. The results suggest that: (1) a number of components of educational expenditure are significantly related to ability test scores, (2) both school integration and compensatory education are capable of altering the relation between ability and family background, and (3) school integration by family income level raises the ability test performance of low-income students while lowering that of high-income students by an equivalent or greater amount.