School Resources and Student Outcomes: An Overview of the Literature and New Evidence from North and South Carolina

Abstract

This paper reviews and interprets the literature on the effects of school resources on students’ eventual earnings and educational attainment. In addition, new evidence is presented on the impact of the great disparity in school resources between black and white students in North and South Carolina that existed in the first half of the twentieth century, and the subsequent narrowing of these resource disparities. Following birth cohorts over time, gaps in earnings and educational attainment for blacks and whites in the Carolinas tend to mirror the gaps in school resources.