Keywords

Education; Educational Funding; Florida Education Funding; Per-Student Funding; Florida Education; Test Scores

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between per-student funding and student achievement within four counties in the state of Florida (Clay County, Duval County, Flagler County, and St. Johns County) and whether higher per-student funding resulted in higher student achievement. Florida recently changed from the usage of the Common Core Standards to the Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) and from the Florida State Assessment (FSA) to the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (F.A.S.T.) test in 2022 (Sabina, Hartikka, and Viola, 2023). This research focused funding on the results of the F.A.S.T. test and the per-student funding of each district for the 2022-2023 school year. The results revealed is a negative correlation between per-student funding and student achievement as identified by the counties’ F.A.S.T. test scores. Specifically, results indicated that the higher per- student overall funding, the lower the aggregated district test scores. This finding leads to deeper questions, especially regarding the many variables that affect student achievement and learning gains. However, per-student state funding as a data point appears insignificant to the test results. One may assume that the distribution of increased funding does not necessarily result in higher student achievement, yet many variables may come into play.

Thesis Completion Year

2025

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

Gresham, Regina

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Teacher Education

Thesis Discipline

Education

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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Rights Statement

In Copyright