Measuring Equity: Creating a New Standard for Inputs and Outputs

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to introduce a new statistic to capture the ratio of equitable student outcomes given equitable inputs. Given the fact that finance structures should be aligned to outcome standards according to judicial interpretation, a ratio of outputs to inputs, or "equity ratio," is introduced to discern if conclusions can be drawn with regard to the equity of both the financial resources and educational opportunity. In developing this ratio, the authors were interested in knowing if educational outcomes were equitable given equitable inputs. Previous analyses of the equity of finance systems made use of measures of dispersion; yet a more complete understanding of the equity of the system must also include measures of distribution. As such, part of the discussion of the equity ratio will include both an analysis of both the dispersion and the distribution of the results. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 2 endnotes.)