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School Resources

School resources are inputs into the education process, such as staff, buildings, and materials. This entry examines the definition of resources, their allocation and use in schools, and the relationship between resource use and outcomes.

Resources and their Role in Learning

Real resources are the human and physical inputs used in education; monetary resources are the finances used to purchase real resources. A common indicator of national effort in providing education is the proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on schools. In 2002, on average, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries spent3.8% of GDP on primary, secondary, and postsecondary nontertiary institutions. This ranged from a maximum of5.7% in Iceland to 2.6% in Turkey. There is a tendency for poorer OECD countries to spend a smaller percentage of GDP on schools than richer countries. The average for 19 OECD partner countries (18 middle-income developing countries plus Russia) was very similar in 2002 at 3.9%, but the range was much wider, from 1.2% in Indonesia to 8.7% in Jamaica. Commonly used, real, comparative resource measures are pupil-staff ratios, average class size, and students per computer.

Resources are used to provide teaching and learning for pupils and therefore are judged in relation to pupil outcomes. These outputs or outcomes of schooling are pupils' cognitive attainment measured by tests and examinations, pupils' progress to further levels of education, and earnings over their working life attributable to their education. In addition, school education can produce nonmonetary benefits for individuals and society, such as better health, better parenting, reduced crime, more active participation in community life and democratic politics, and greater social cohesion. Some of these benefits are private, as they accrue to the individual alone, whereas others are public benefits accruing to society as a whole. Thus, resources are analyzed as inputs into the schooling process and studied as part of an input-output system.

The relationship between real resources and school outputs is mediated by school context and processes of social interaction within schools. Contextual variables include the policy and governance framework within which schools operate, the locality and community the school serves, and the characteristics of its student body. Pupil characteristics, both inherent and those acquired through family upbringing and any previous schooling, determine a larger proportion of a pupil's cognitive attainment than the effects of the school itself, which also depend on the characteristics of the peer group. Thus, an additional and very important resource is the school's pupils as well as the characteristics—both individual and collective—that they bring to the school. When schools' outputs are measured after controlling for pupils' prior attainment and/or family characteristics and school context, this measure of output is known as “value added.”

Criteria for Assessing Resources

Four main criteria are applied in assessing resources—adequacy, transparency, equity, and efficiency.

An adequate amount is sufficient resources to provide a specific standard of education. One way of assessing adequacy is to determine if per-pupil funding in one area is less than the average in other areas. More specifically, adequate funding is defined as the amount required to achieve defined standards for children with specific learning needs, because those with greater learning needs—often, but not exclusively, associated with social disadvantage—require more resources to achieve a given standard.

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