From Districts To Schools: The Distribution Of ResourcesAcross Schools In Big City School Districts

Leanna StiefelNew York University

Ross RubensteinSyracuse University

Amy Ellen SchwartzNew York University

Presentation for the Education Finance Research ConsortiumMarch 2004

Guiding Questions What do we know about intradistrict

resource allocation and school based finance? What is What should be

What can we learn from new evidence: New York City, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio?

What are the policy options for New York City and New York State?

Research on School-Level Resource Distribution

1. Inter-district distributions hide substantial variations across schools

2. Distribution of teacher resources often penalizes “high need” schools

More teachers with less experience and education at high poverty, low performing schools

Research on School-level Resource Distribution

3. Disparities may result from teacher distribution policies

e.g., seniority transfer rights

4. Relatively little is known about how large districts do (or should) distribute resources to school sites

De Facto Spending Models: NYC, Columbus and Cleveland Schools

What are they? Dependent variables (NYC):

Total expenditures per pupil Direct classroom expenditures per-pupil Teachers per 1,000 pupils Percentage of teachers who are licensed Percentage of teachers who hold MA degrees Teacher salary

Independent variables (NYC): Student characteristics (free lunch, LEP, immigrant,

special ed) Student performance (pct. Level 1, English language

assessment) School size

NYC Results

More poor pupils more money, more teachers per pupil, but less educated, lower-paid, less likely to be licensed

More special ed pupils more funds and teachers, but less educated, lower-paid, less likely to be licensed Different pattern for resource room

NYC Results Lower performing students more

teachers, but lower qualifications Less consistent than poverty

As school size increases, spending per pupil and teacher-pupil ratio decrease Complex relationship between school size

and teacher characteristics, depending on enrollment and school level

Ohio Results Higher poverty more funds but

lower teacher qualifications and salaries

Higher performance generally higher spending, higher salaries

Complex relationship between school size and resources

Across The Districts

New York City has unique features, but some common patterns emerge Higher poverty schools generally receive

more funds Teachers in high poverty schools tend to

have less education, lower salaries

Policy Options Provide schools with budgets in dollars

rather than positions Force trade-offs between teacher characteristics and

staffing ratios Make disparities more transparent Adverse effect on experienced teachers?

Differential pay in hard-to-staff subjects, schools and grades

Could help to address the undersupply of teachers in certain areas

How much would differential need to be?

Policy Options Adopt “weighted” student-based funding

formula with dollars following students Cost factors generate additional funding over base Schools receive “student budget” Difficulty determining weights – base on empirical

results?

Adapt district-based funding formulae, such as Regents proposal, to the school-level

Could be coupled with new discretion for schools Could recognize “economies of scale” from serving

multiple students with similar needs