INTERPRETING RESEARCH ON SCHOOL RESOURCES AND STUDENT-ACHIEVEMENT - AREJOINDER TO HANUSHEK

Hanushek's (1996) comment illuminates some of the ways in which he dif fers from us in approach and interpretation. Hanushek misunderstands t he interpretation of meta-analytic results when (as in the present cas e) studies produce range of different, but positive effects. We disagr ee 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 researc h, we show that even overcompensating for its likely effects does not substantially influence our results. While disagreements persist, scho larly debate should not obscure the fact that the best evidence, upon close inspection and the application of appropriate statistical method ology, demonstrates that student achievement is related to resource av ailability.