Educational Leaders’ Beliefs about Achievement Inequality and Resource Allocation

How do elite administrators’ beliefs about social inequalities shape their decisions about social spending? We advance knowledge about the political causes and consequences of inequality by examining the relationship between school district superintendents’ inequality perceptions and school spending preferences. We use novel survey and budget simulation data collected from 282 superintendents to examine their beliefs about achievement disparities and learn how those beliefs relate to budget allocations (n=564). We examine whether superintendents allocate more funding to particular student groups they believe have lower starting academic proficiency levels, and whether their perceptions of the academic inequalities between student subgroups lead them to prioritize different categories of spending within school districts.
We compare superintendents’ beliefs about academic disparities to the actual academic proficiency distributions by race/ethnicity and income in their state. We estimate whether superintendents’ perceptions of academic proficiency inequalities predict their support for allocating more funding to some student groups over others. We examine whether beliefs about, or actual levels of achievement inequalities, predict preferences for redistributive funding, and whether perceptions of inequalities are associated with preferences for particular categories of school funding.
Results
Superintendents overestimate academic proficiency levels for all student groups, relative to NAEP data on academic proficiency levels within their state, and underestimate academic proficiency gaps by student race and income.
Superintendents’ views on achievement inequalities predict their preferences for allocating more spending toward the traditionally underserved student subgroup. They are more likely to allocate funding differentially, rather than evenly, when they believe the White-Black academic proficiency gap is larger, even net of other demographic controls. Superintendents have broadly similar preferences for investing in specific categories of expenditures, regardless of their views on student-level proficiency levels for particular groups of students or for proficiency gaps. Respondents prioritize spending on instruction and student support services when they believe that overall academic proficiency levels are lower.
Results indicate that policymakers’ perceptions of inequalities guide their decision-making with regard to redistributive social spending. Despite greater domain specific knowledge and education, superintendents are similar to the general public when it comes to the relationship between perceptions of inequality and support for redistribution.
However, most superintendents (65%) allocate funds progressively rather than evenly, targeting funds to marginalized student groups, including low-income, Black, and Hispanic students. Superintendents have a higher preference for redistribution than the general public and in most cases allocate additional funds to support marginalized student groups.