The Relationship between Expenditures per Pupil and Elementary Achievement in Public School Districts in Dupage County, Illinoi

The purpose of this study examined the relationship between expenditures per pupil and elementary achievement in public school districts in DuPage County, Illinois for the years 2010 through 2012. The study analyzed the data for the financial operating expenditures to elementary achievement on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. Data for the study were collected from the Illinois State Board of Education and was available to the public. Descriptive statistics and Pearson product correlation analysis examined the relationship of expenditures to elementary achievement. The results of the scatterplot indicated a small and positive relationship such that the financial expenditures per pupil were correlated with higher average ISAT results. However, the sizes of the correlations were small and non-significant for the three years in the study. The results of the percent of budget spent on instruction showed evidence of a negative relationship in 2010 and 2011 whereby increases in the percent of budget spent on instruction tended to co-occur with lower ISAT average scores while in 2012 figures showed no relationship. The correlations were not significant for three years in the study. The study was significant in that it will provide valuable information to future financial studies.