Interpreting research on school resources and student achievement: A rejoinder to Hanushek

Hanushek's (1996) comment illuminates some of the ways in which he differs from us in approach and interpretation. Hanushek misunderstands the interpretation of meta-analytic results when (as in the present case) studies produce a range of different, but positive effects. We disagree with Hanushek on the role of statistical independence. While we do not regard multiple analyses of data on the same individuals to be as informative as analyses of independent data sets, Hanushek treats the two as equivalent. While publication bias remains a concern in research, we show that even overcompensating for its likely effects does not substantially influence our results. While disagreements persist, scholarly debate should not obscure the fact that the best evidence, upon close inspection and the application of appropriate statistical methodology, demonstrates that student achievement is related to resource availability.