A January 2011 report published by the Center for American Progress provides a district-by-district evaluation of educational productivity in the United States. According to its author, Ulrich Boser, the Return on Educational Investment report is the first-ever attempt to study and evaluate almost every major school district in the country by measuring the academic achievement a school district produces relative to its educational spending. Over the past 40 years U.S. educational spending per student has nearly tripled after adjusting for inflation; however, student achievement has reportedly largely remained flat. The study found that there was no clear relationship between spending and achievement in more than half of the states included in the study and that more than one million students are enrolled in highly inefficient school districts throughout the country. The study revealed that the school districts considered to be “highly productive” were similar with regard to values and practices that included focusing on improving student outcomes, building strong community involvement, having school boards willing to make tough decisions such as school closures and using sophisticated longitudinal data systems to monitor and track student outcomes.
The Return of Educational Investment report can be accessed at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/educational_productivity/report.html. The website also includes an interactive map that allows comparisons of the productivity of school districts included in the study.