Separate and Unequal in St. Louis? Strengths and Limitations of School-Level Funding Data Using a QuantCrit Framework

Abstract

As outcome gaps persist between students of varying racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, it remains critical to assess how equitably school funding regimes allocate resources, perhaps most importantly in segregated areas. In this article, I apply a QuantCrit framework to examine school funding in the St. Louis region using newly available school-level data, data particularly relevant in urban settings with large potential within-district funding variation. My findings vary widely predicated on choices to include measures of local property wealth, underscoring the importance of quantitative analyses to motivate analytical decisions based on the context and historical underpinnings of relevant data sources.