Intradistrict Distribution of School Inputs to the Disadvantaged: Evidence for the Courts

This paper details a method for those interested in investigating the equity aspects of intradistrict distributions of educational resources. It should be viewed as a procedure for post Hobson v. Hansen lawyers which steps away from some of the speculative quality of the evidence that has been, and is still, being used. Using detailed individual school data in a systematic way allows the investigator to delineate which unequally distributed resources positively contribute to stated equity objectives, which resources are outside the school administration's control, and what the overall Equity picture is, starting from the components. Using aggregate measures, such as per pupil expenditures in each school, does not permit this, and results in much debate on whether or not one particular componentschool size, for example--explains away the expenditure variations. The method is applied to data for the Philadelphia School District.