AFSCME Information Highway

Source: Ann Duffett, Steve Farkas, Andrew J. Rotherham, Elena Silva, Education Sector, May 2008

From the summary:
American public education is in the midst of intense change, and teachers, in particular, are facing pressure to produce better outcomes for students. As policymakers, teachers unions, and other stakeholders react to changing demands on the nation's public education system, there remains considerable debate about what teachers think and what they want. Too often assumptions define the conversation rather than actual evidence of teachers' views. In an effort to facilitate and inform this conversation, Education Sector and the FDR Group surveyed 1,010 K-12 public school teachers about their views on the teaching profession, teachers unions, and a host of reforms aimed at improving teacher quality.

Posted by Info Center at 10:48 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: Mary Filardo, EPI Briefing Paper, April 29, 2008

From the summary:
The nation's 97,000 public school buildings comprise an estimated 6.6 billion square feet of space on over 1 million acres of land. And while states and local communities invested over $500 billion in K-12 school building improvements from 1995 to 2004, considerable additional investments are needed to ensure that the nation's public schools are healthy, safe, environmentally sound, and built and maintained to support a high-quality education.

Today, many of the nation's schools face the combined challenges of deteriorating conditions, out-of date design, and changing utilization pressures (including intense overcrowding in some communities and rapidly declining enrollments in others). These combined deficiencies impair the quality of teaching and learning and contribute to health and safety problems for staff and students. Building design and facility conditions have also been associated with teacher motivation and student achievement.
See also:
Press release

Posted by Info Center at 9:44 AM in Economy | Education | Environment | Infrastructure | Permalink

Source: Gerg Anrig, The Washington Monthly, April 2008

...But in recent months, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, the school voucher movement has abruptly stalled. Some stalwart advocates of vouchers have either repudiated the idea entirely or considerably tempered their enthusiasm for it. Exhibit A is "School Choice Isn't Enough," an article in the winter 2008 City Journal (the quarterly published by the conservative Manhattan Institute) written by the former voucher proponent Sol Stern. Acknowledging that voucher programs for poor children had "hit a wall," Stern concluded: "Education reformers ought to resist unreflective support for elegant-sounding theories, derived from the study of economic activity, that don't produce verifiable results in the classroom." His conversion has triggered an intense debate in conservative circles. The center-right education scholar Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and a longtime critic of public school bureaucracies and teachers unions, told the New York Sun that he was sympathetic to Stern's argument. In his newly published memoirs, Finn also writes of his increasing skepticism that "the market's invisible hand" produces improved performance on its own. Howard Fuller, an African American who was the superintendent of schools in Milwaukee when the voucher program was launched there, and who received substantial support from the Bradley Foundation and other conservative institutions over the years, has conceded, "It hasn't worked like we thought it would in theory." From all appearances, then, the voucher movement may not long outlive its founder, Friedman, or its most vigorous advocate and funder, Michael Joyce, who both died in 2006. How did one of the conservative policy world's most cherished causes crumble so quickly?

Full text

Posted by William at 9:40 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: Pre-K Now

From press release:
In spite of significant fiscal and political challenges, 16 governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., proposed a total of $261 million in increases for pre-kindergarten programs, according to Pre-K Now, a Washington, D.C.-based education advocacy group, in its annual state-by-state analysis of leadership on early childhood education released today.

The report, "Leadership Matters: Governors' Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2009," reveals that, collectively, these budget proposals would bring total state funding for pre-k to $5.2 billion--a 5.5% increase from last year--and would make pre-k available to nearly 60,000 more three and four year olds across the country. Among the governors recognized in the report for fighting to expand quality pre-k programs in the face of major hurdles are Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) of Tennessee and Bob Riley (R) of Alabama, both of whom joined Pre-K Now for today's release.

Full Report (PDF; 544 KB)

Posted by William at 8:39 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: U.S. Department of Education

From news release:
In 1983, the national report, A Nation At Risk, delivered a wake up call for our education system. It described stark realities like a significant number of functionally illiterate high schoolers, plummeting student performance, and international competitors breathing down our necks. It was a warning, a reproach, and a call to arms.

Fast forward twenty-five years to 2008. What has changed?

In some ways, we haven't fully learned the lessons of A Nation at Risk, and continue to deal with the consequences. Today, half of all minority students fail to graduate from high school on time. But there's an upside. A Nation At Risk inspired some state-level pioneers to think about standards and accountability in education, and put them into practice. This, in turn, led to the landmark No Child Left Behind Act. Now, across the nation, we're finally measuring the progress of students of every race and income level, finally holding ourselves accountable for their performance, and finally producing and sharing data to determine what works.

Accurate, honest information is helping to show us the way forward, but it's also revealing disturbing realities--like grave inequities between students of different races and income levels. As a result, the accountability movement to raise student achievement has reached a tipping point: will we hide from tough problems or redouble our efforts to help every student achieve their potential?

Full Report (PDF; 941 KB)

The 1983 report (PDF)

Posted by William at 8:32 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: American Association of University Professors, March-April 2008

For many years now, colleges and universities have attempted to balance competing demands from students, legislators, and society at large. Students are enrolling in record numbers, legislators and employers are demanding greater skill levels from graduates, and higher education is increasingly being called on to do the work of economic development; at the same time, the share of institutional funding provided by state and federal governments continues to decline. Given these competing pressures on institutions, financial decision making has become a matter of determining priorities. In this year's report, we call into question the apparent priorities demonstrated by trends in relative spending on salaries for faculty, football coaches, and senior administrators and by the shifts in staffing that have reshaped colleges and universities so dramatically over recent decades.

Posted by Info Center at 3:33 PM in Compensation | Education | Permalink

Source: America's Promise Alliance

Graduation rates have become a prominent feature in the landscape of high school reform and within the larger world of educational policy. Studies conducted over the past several years have repeatedly demonstrated that far fewer American students are completing high school with diplomas than had previously been realized. Whereas the conventional wisdom had long placed the graduation rate around 85 percent, a growing consensus has emerged that only about seven in 10 students are actually successfully finishing high school. Graduation rates are even lower among certain student populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and males.

That same conventional wisdom also suggests that the type of community in which a student lives and attends school will exert a strong and pervasive influence on a variety of educational outcomes. This connection between place and performance applies to both the experiences of individual students and the collective performance of schools and school systems. Striking differences between schools situated in urban and suburban environments, for instance, have frequently been documented in the area of tested achievement. An analysis by the EPE Research Center also shows that high school graduation rates are 15 percentage points lower in the nation's urban schools when compared with those located in the suburbs. Despite the acknowledged importance of such contextual factors, apart from attention to broad national-level patterns, there has been limited detailed investigation into the connection between where a young person lives and his or her chances of graduating from high school.

This report takes a geographically-informed approach to the issue of high school completion. Specifically, we examine graduation rates in the school districts serving the nation's 50 most-populous cities as well as the larger metropolitan areas in which they are situated. Results show that graduation rates are considerably lower in the nation's largest cities than they are in the average urban locale. Further, extreme disparities emerge in a number of the country's largest metropolitan areas, where students served by suburban systems may be twice as likely as their urban peers to graduate from high school.

Full report (PDF; 1.8 MB)

Posted by William at 10:37 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service

From press release:
The study compares the cost of producing school meals in the 2005-2006 school year to the total revenue to schools from Federal reimbursements, state and local contributions, and payments by participating households. That year, the average cost to produce a lunch was $2.28 and the Federal subsidy for a free lunch, including cash and commodity food, was about $2.50. Other key findings include:
• On average, revenue generated from reimbursable lunches exceeded the reported cost of production.
• On average, revenue generated from reimbursable breakfasts and a la carte foods did not cover the reported costs for production. As a result, revenue from reimbursable lunches subsidizes a portion of the cost to produce and serve both breakfasts and a la carte foods.
• On average, school food services operated at a break-even level in 2005-06, with revenues equal to costs.
• While most lunches cost less to produce than the USDA subsidy for a free lunch, not all did. For almost four out of five school districts, the average cost of producing a lunch was less than the free subsidy; in the rest, the average cost exceeded the subsidy.
Reported costs reflect all costs that a school food service must cover with the funds they receive. The study also examined the combination of reported costs and other costs, described as "full costs". School districts do not always charge some expenses - such as time spent by school staff to support the application process and some overhead costs - to this account. There are many factors that may lead districts not to allocate some costs to that account. Since the last study in 1992-93 school districts are charging a higher proportion of these costs to the food service accounts.

Summary (PDF; 31 KB)
Executive Summary (PDF; 270 KB)
Full Report (PDF; 1.32 MB)

Posted by William at 10:30 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its collection agent, the U.S. Census Bureau. Data for CCD surveys are provided by state education agencies (SEAs). This report presents findings on public education revenues and expenditures using fiscal year 2006 (FY 06) data from the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) of the CCD survey system. Programs covered in the NPEFS include regular, special, and vocational education; charter schools (if they reported data to the SEA); and state-run education programs (such as special education centers or education programs for incarcerated youth).

Full Report (PDF; 216 KB)

Posted by William at 10:45 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

From the news release:
School districts in the United States spent an average of $9,138 per student in fiscal year 2006, an increase of $437 from 2005, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.

Public Education Finances: 2006 offers a comprehensive look at the revenues and expenditures of public school districts at the national and state levels The report includes detailed tables that allow for the calculation of per pupil expenditures. Highlights from these tables include spending on instruction, support services, construction, salaries and benefits of the more than 15,000 school districts. Public school districts include elementary and secondary school systems.

Posted by William at 3:02 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

The 43rd in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest's primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons.

Source: NCES

Posted by Info Center at 9:25 AM in Education | Statistics | Permalink

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research

From press release (Pew Charitable Trusts):

State-funded preschools served over one million children last year, yet public pre-K was unavailable for most 3- and 4-year-olds, according to the annual survey released today by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).

Funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The State of Preschool 2007 ranks all 50 states on the percentage of children served and spending per child. It also compares the number of quality benchmarks each state meets for the 2006-2007 school year. The survey found that enrollment, quality and state spending per child increased.

Yet, 12 states offered no state-funded preschool education and others faltered in their commitment to the quality of their early education programs. The report showed that nationally less than half of all 4-year-olds were enrolled in government-supported preschool education programs and one quarter received no preschool. For 3-year-olds the situation was worse, with only 15 percent enrolled in public programs and 50 percent receiving no early education.

Children from wealthy families can attend expensive private preschools while the federal Head Start program and most state-funded preschool education is targeted at lower income families.

Full Report (PDF; 8.4 MB)

State Profiles (PDFs)

Posted by Info Center at 8:30 AM in Children | Education | Permalink

Source: Harry Holzer, Robert I. Lerman, Urban Institute, March 18, 2008

From the summary:
This paper analyzes data on recent employment and wage trends, as well as projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to analyze the likely future demand for workers in "middle-skill" jobs - i.e., those requiring more than secondary school but less than a bachelor's degree. Contrary to recent assertions that demand for middle-skill jobs will shrink dramatically (creating an "hourglass" or "dumbbell" labor market), we find that demand for such jobs will remain quite robust. The growth in supply of workers with these skills will also likely shrink as "Baby Boomers" retire and are replaced by immigrants. Thus, education and training programs that help less-educated workers gain these skills remain a worthwhile investment. Written for the Workforce Alliance, Washington D.C.

Posted by Info Center at 12:16 PM in Education | Workforce | Permalink

Source: Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution, Testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor, January 23, 2008

As members of this Committee know well, there is good evidence from scientific research that preschool education can be an effective tool in our nation's long struggle to reduce the achievement gap between poor children and children from non-poor families. Reducing the achievement gap holds great promise for reducing poverty in the long term and even for reducing inequality. Having spent many years studying social intervention programs, I think it is fair to say that there is no body of evidence on any social intervention that holds as much promise of producing as wide a range of positive effects as high-quality preschool programs.

Posted by Info Center at 12:54 PM in Children | Education | Permalink

Source: United States Government Accountability Office, GAO-08-221, February 12, 2008

In February 2005, GAO issued a report that raised concerns about the effectiveness of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) oversight of about 1,600 local organizations that receive nearly $7 billion in Head Start grants. GAO was asked to report on (1) ACF's progress in conducting a risk assessment of the Head Start program and ensuring the accuracy and reliability of data from its annual Program Information Report (PIR) survey of grantees, (2) efforts to improve on-site monitoring of grantees, and (3) how data are used to improve oversight and help grantees meet program standards. For this report, GAO surveyed a nationally representative sample of Head Start program directors and interviewed ACF officials. GAO also reviewed ACF studies on the validity of PIR data and conducted tests of data from the 2006 PIR database.

Posted by Info Center at 4:56 PM in Child Care Workers | Education | Permalink

Source: National Education Association

Despite the value of education to Americans, the National Education Association published figures today showing that investments in America's public schools remain stagnant, as the average increase in teacher salary continues to trail behind the rate of inflation for 2005-06. No state has achieved adequate and equitable funding despite years of court cases and education reform proposals.

According to NEA's publication, Rankings and Estimates: Rankings of the States 2006 and Estimates of School Statistics 2007, the average one-year increase in public schoolteacher salaries was 2.9 percent, while inflation escalated 3.9 percent. Over the past 10 years, the average salary for public schoolteachers increased only 1.3 percent after adjusting for inflation. Because of inflation and other economic factors, teachers have not been able to keep pace with basic household expenses.

Full report (PDF; 1.4 MB)

Posted by Info Center at 10:47 AM in Education | Permalink

Source: Expansion Management

Each state offers work force training programs, but each state is different. Eligibility rules vary, as do cost per employee, funding restrictions and wage requirements. Some states offer work force training programs free to qualified companies, while other states award grants to companies to cover the cost of training. Most states take full advantage of their community college systems, which are an ideal place to conduct work force training because that is, in essence, their mission.

Article

Chart: State Work Force Training Programs (PDF; 390 KB)

Posted by Info Center at 2:16 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: Education Sector

Less than 40 percent of Birmingham students graduate from high school on time, according to Education Week. Test scores still lag the rest of the state; there are still large achievement gaps between black and white children; and the student body and budget continue to shrink every year. For the students who remain, most of whom are black and poor, "the promised land of racial justice" described by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the Birmingham jail must seem very far away.

But you wouldn't know it by asking the Alabama Department of Education. It says everything is fine, that Birmingham City Schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). And only five of the district's 65 schools are "in need of improvement." The serious consequences and strong interventions that NCLB's authors envisioned for chronically underperforming districts like Birmingham are nowhere to be found.

The reason is simple: While NCLB was designed to raise achievement standards every year until 2014, when 100 percent of students are required to be "proficient," the Alabama Department of Education has lowered standards annually, to the point where even abjectly failing districts like Birmingham make the grade. And it's not alone--every one of the accountability-avoidance gambits used in Alabama has been adopted in many other states. Indeed, the most noteworthy thing about Alabama's elaborate plan to avoid NCLB accountability, and the impact of those actions on Birmingham, is how mundane they really are. Similar stories could be written about states and districts across the nation.

Collectively, these states and districts provide a case study in how determined states can undermine even tightly constructed laws like NCLB. And, as importantly, they provide a cautionary tale for members of Congress working to write the next version of the nation's most important education law.

Full Report (PDF; 232 KB)

Posted by Info Center at 12:36 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: Center for American Progress, Press Release, October 15, 2007

The Senate continues the budget battle this week with the consideration of the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations bill, which sets levels for education spending, as well as other key domestic programs. President Bush has already stated he plans to veto the bill because it provides $64.9 billion for the Education Department. Bush's proposed budget appropriates only $61 billion--$3.9 billion less than Congress' budget and $1.3 billion less than the Education Department received last year. The Bush administration, in the same year that it is spending $50 billion each month on operations in Iraq, plans on vetoing a bill because it increases funding for American schools by $2.6 billion, among other domestic budget increases. What's even more surprising is that Education Secretary Margaret Spellings actually announced back in February that Bush's newly proposed budget would increase education funding by 41 percent relative to 2001. A look at the president's budget tells a different story. As this new interactive map shows, 44 out of 50 states would see reductions in federal funding for elementary and secondary education for fiscal year 2008 if the Bush administration got its way. Rather than bold increases, states on average will see a -1.4 percent decrease in elementary and secondary school funding.

Posted by Info Center at 7:01 PM in Budget – United States | Education | State & Local Finance | Permalink

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research, Preschool Matters, Volume 5, No. 4, August/September 2007
(page 10)

Necessity has fueled growth in out-of-home care for young children as workforce participation by both parents grew. As research on programs for children in their preschool years turned up long-term benefits for them and societies that invest in them, something else began fueling the growth-- the push for education. That boosted demand for facilities designed to provide rich learning environments. There's a problem, though. Publicly funded preschool education is growing faster than the development of facilities best suited to providing it. A new joint policy brief from NIEER and the non-profit Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) examines the issues involved in building early childhood facilities and spells out ways public policy can serve as a catalyst for new facilities and help cushion the financial blow for providers.
See also:
Community Investment Collaborative for Kids

Posted by Info Center at 1:38 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: Jennifer V. Doctors, Pre-K Now, September 2007

From the press release:
A record-breaking 36 states increased funding for pre-kindergarten according to a report released today by Pre-K Now. "Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2008," an annual state-by-state analysis of legislative support for pre-k, shows historic momentum for funding early education across the country, with 528 million new dollars committed to providing at least 88,000 more children access to pre-k. The number of states increasing pre-k funding breaks last year's record of 34, and far exceeds the FY05 record of 15.
• Individual state data

Posted by Info Center at 4:55 PM in Children | Education | Permalink

Source: Martin H. Malin and Charles Kerchner, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 30 no. 3, Summer 2007

From the abstract:
The rapid increase in charter schools has been fueled by the view that traditional public schools have failed because of their monopoly on public education. Charter schools, freed from the bureaucratic regulation that dominates traditional public schools, are viewed as agents of change that will shock traditional public schools out of their complacency. Among the features of the failed status quo are teacher tenure, uniform salary grids and strict work rules, matters that teacher unions hold dear. Yet unions have begun organizing teachers in charter schools. This development prompts the question whether unionization and charter schools are compatible.

Posted by Info Center at 2:41 PM in Collective Bargaining | Collective Bargaining - Public Sector | Education | Labor Unions | Public Sector | Permalink

Source: Christine Vestal, Stateline.org, October 05, 2007

Maryland, California, Virginia and other states are recruiting retirees to work in public schools as volunteers and salaried employees, offering boomers what they say they want -- meaningful second careers.

Posted by Info Center at 2:31 PM in Education | Older People | Permalink

Source: Pauline Vu, Stateline.org, October 09, 2007

The controversial idea of paying teachers based not on how long they've been teaching but on how much their students learn got a boost when a key congressman recently proposed adding pay-for-performance money for teachers in high-poverty schools to the next version of the federal No Child Left Behind education law.

Posted by Info Center at 2:27 PM in Compensation | Education | Permalink

Source: Roger Matus, Sean True, and Chuck Ingold, InBoxer, Inc., 2007

Public schools and local governments may have more stringent requirements than most businesses for email archiving and electronic discovery. Yet, with their limited budgets, schools and local governments are often the least equipped to respond.

The newly revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure define how email must be handled in federal court cases. Businesses tend to think that the FRCP focus is on interstate lawsuits. Schools and governments, however, also need to be concerned with emails relating to federally funded activities or any activity governed by federal legislation.

In addition, schools and local governments have the burden of responding to (1) requests under open meeting and Freedom of Information Act laws, (2) offensive emails or those with sexual content involving students, and (3) emailed threats.

Posted by Info Center at 10:59 AM in Education | Local Government | Permalink

Source: Lowell C. Rose and Alec M. Gallup, September 2007

The 39th poll comes at a time when K-12 schooling is near the top of the agenda in state and national policy discussions, and efforts to improve student achievement dominate those discussions. Chief among the improvement efforts is No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the sweeping federal initiative. Given the importance of this law and the fact that the poll was founded on the belief that public support is a vital component of shaping effective education policy, it is appropriate to open this report with the public's reaction to NCLB and its principal strategy, standardized testing.

As it has grown in importance, the PDK/Gallup Poll has fueled debate regarding K-12 schooling, and charges of bias are routine. With that in mind, we have gradually reshaped the poll report to make it user-friendly and to draw the reader into the analysis of the data. We report the data, state what we believe they say, and leave it to the reader to reach his or her own conclusions.

In this year's report, the statements following a table and designated as "Findings" are in the nature of summaries that we believe offer a fair interpretation of the data. Statements designated as "Conclusions" are highlighted because we think they capture the most significant of the poll results. These are offered as topics for debate. In the end, our aim is to let the data speak for themselves.

The PDK/Gallup polls provide a snapshot of the public's assessment of its schools and the challenges they face, as well as a measure of what the public will and will not support in terms of program initiatives. Such information can be invaluable in the ongoing policy debates regarding our public schools. However, that information will not be remotely useful unless school leaders consider the implications of the public's views for the operation of the schools. School leaders can bring to bear on school policy the common sense and practical wisdom that were missing from the creation of No Child Left Behind. Here, we offer seven implications of the 2007 PDK/Gallup Poll.

Posted by Info Center at 3:27 PM in Education | Statistics | Permalink

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 2007

As the nation's students and teachers return to school, here are selected statistics about American schools, students, and the educational process. The information was compiled by IES and derives from the Institute's research and statistical centers. Follow the accompanying links for additional information.

Posted by Info Center at 5:55 PM in Education | Statistics | Permalink

Source: Edited by: Alison Consoletti and Jeanne Allen, Center for Education Reform, April 2007

From press release:
Despite legal challenges, charter schools grew by 11 percent in 2006 and continue to serve a student body that is on average 53 percent minority and 54 percent low-income. Charter school popularity continues to grow among children most in need. In 2006, 42 percent of charter schools served an “at-risk” student population over 60 percent and 44 percent served a minority student population over 60 percent.
See also: Understanding Constitutions & Charter Schools

Posted by Info Center at 5:56 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: Ralph Adamo, Dissent, Vol. 54 no. 3, Summer 2007

When hurricane Katrina (or, more accurately, the failure of the levees) washed away the New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) at the end of August 2005, there was relief in many quarters. Within days of the storm, the acting public school superintendent, Ora Watson, declared that the “fiscal crisis of the New Orleans Public Schools” was now over. In hastily assembled meetings, members of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), state and local politicians, and leaders of the state’s education bureaucracy convened to examine the situation. Representatives of the charter school movement, as well as providers of ancillary education services and materials, also convened. The chance to recreate public education in New Orleans from the ground up was an irresistible consequence of Katrina, as well as a dream come true. Before the first waves of refugees began returning to the drowned city, these newly energized social engineers had decided that no public school would reopen (though public schools did open relatively quickly in the neighboring parishes of Jefferson and St. Bernard); that all 7,500 employees of the system (the majority of them teachers) would be terminated; and that whatever schools did open would be charter schools, operating under the aegis of either BESE or NOPS, depending on the type or timing of the charter application.

Posted by Info Center at 5:19 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NCES 2007-008, June 2007

This Issue Brief (1) offers a descriptive portrait of the distribution of instructional paraprofessionals in all public elementary and secondary schools by instructional responsibility and selected school characteristics and (2) examines the educational attainment criteria used by school districts in hiring these paraprofessionals. Data for this analysis were drawn from the 2003–04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The findings from this analysis indicate that 91 percent of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States had at least one instructional paraprofessional on staff in 2003–04. A greater percentage of traditional public schools than charter schools had instructional paraprofessionals and a greater percentage of elementary schools than secondary schools report having instructional paraprofessionals. Overall, 93 percent of schools were in districts that required paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent. The results also indicate that a greater percentage of Title I schools than non-Title I schools were in districts that required instructional paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent.
+ Standard Errors

Posted by Info Center at 5:50 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 2007

The Condition of Education 2007 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data and by presenting 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school coursetaking. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2007 print edition includes 48 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.

Posted by Info Center at 5:49 PM in Education | Statistics | Permalink

Source: National Commission On Teaching And America’s Future, Policy Brief

America’s schools are struggling with a growing teacher dropout problem that is costing the nation over $7 billion a year. It is draining resources, diminishing teaching quality, and undermining our ability to close the student achievement gap.

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) estimates that the national cost of public school teacher turnover could be over $7.3 billion a year. This new estimate is significantly higher than the most recent estimate of $4.9 billion in annual costs that was made in a report by the Alliance for Excellent Education in 2005, and takes into account recent increases in the size of the teacher workforce and the rate of teacher turnover.

Posted by Info Center at 2:12 PM in Education | Permalink

Source: Lee Hoffman, National Center for Education Statistics, NCES 2007353, June 19, 2007

This report presents national and state-level data about the number of regular school districts and other local education agencies, school district size, grades served, and the number of school districts in city, suburban, town, and rural locales.
+ Full Report, U.S. Department of Education, NCES 2007-353

Posted by Info Center at 4:28 PM in Education | Statistics | Permalink

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, CB07-76, May 24, 2007

The nation’s public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

Findings from Public Education Finances: 2005, show that New York spent $14,119 per student — the highest amount among states and state equivalents. Just behind was neighboring New Jersey at $13,800, the District of Columbia at $12,979, Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Seven of the top 10 with the highest per pupil expenditures were in the Northeast.

Utah spent the least per student ($5,257), followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). All 10 of the states with the lowest spending per student were in the West or South.

The report and associated data files contain information for all local public school systems in the country. For example, in New York City, the largest school district in the country, per pupil spending was $13,755.

Posted by Info Center at 11:31 AM in Education | Permalink