Research on Instruction Rather than Resources May Be Key

This prize-winning article calls into question the common approach of looking at the relationship between school resources and student achievement.

Cohen, D.K., Raudenbush, S.W. and Ball, D.L. (2003). Resources, instruction and research. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 25, 2 119-142.

Much education research looks at the relationship between school resources and student achievement, establishing some set of resources as the causal variable and student achievement as the outcome.  The authors argue for a mode in which causal agents are situated in instruction, and achievement is the outcome.