Is Formula-Based Equity Funding Enough? A Configurational Analysis of School Achievement in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

The Australian state of Victoria uses its funding formula to correct for schools' community educational advantage, size, and location; the index of community educational advantage has been the strongest predictor of achievement historically. We use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine the configurations of school and funding factors necessary and sufficient for high and low achievement, and find no consistently necessary profile but one consistently sufficient configuration for high achievement and four for low achievement. While community educational advantage is not an insurmountable dictate of school achievement, there is no consistent pathway to failure for high-advantage schools or to success for low-advantage schools. These results highlight the utility of examining school achievement through the lens of complex and configurational causality.