Teacher Quality and School Resegregation: A Resource Allocation Case Study

This article uses a school finance equity framework to examine the distribution of resources across the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) during a policy shift toward neighborhood-based student assignment between 1999 and 2004. Findings from this analysis confirm that MNPS schools are resegregating. Additionally, this study finds that, although Nashville students from poor and minority backgrounds received additional resources from the district in the form of reduced pupil/teacher ratios, they faced challenges in the form of higher percentages of inexperienced teachers and reduced average teacher salaries. Finally, this analysis provides evidence to suggest that these inequitable relationships worsen slightly over time.