Monday, April 2, 2012

Investing in the classroom

This is the second in a series of posts analyzing school finance data.  The first dealt with efficiency, defined as how much schools spent on the administration of their program on a per student basis.  This post is related to that, as it analyzes the schools that invest the most in the classroom.  Clearly, schools that are efficiently administered have more money to invest in the classroom.

A complete listing of charters with their per-student investment in the classroom is below, but first, some interesting findings.

  1. Comparing all schools together is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.  High schools, which receive more funding per student, tend to spend more per student (with some interesting exceptions, noted below.)  A school's demographics also have a major impact.  Schools with high Title I populations (City Academy, Uintah River) and Special Education prevalence rates (Spectrum and Pinnacle Canyon) receive and spend more money to educate such students.  Those who want to compare schools to each other based on similar demographics and grade offerings, or other factors, can just pick and choose the schools they wish to compare. 
  2. There are three outliers, one at the bottom and two at the top of the list.  Uintah River spends 50 percent more than the number 2 school on the list, and that school (Success School) spends 50 percent more than number three.  At the bottom, Hawthorn Academy spends significantly less than the second-to-last school.  Uintah River is unique becuase they raise so much money locally and they have such a unique population.  I don't know why Hawthorn would be so low on instruction spending, particularly since they are in the middle of the pack in administrative spending.  (They are on the high side on facility spending, the subject of a future post.)
  3. The vast majority of schools spend between $2,700 and $4,500, with high schools spending more and elementary schools less.  The mean spending per student is $3,373 with the median on this list (half above and half below) is $3,278--lower because of the high outliers at the top.
All data comes from Annual Financial Reports submitted by each school, which reports its own expenses.  Averages come from dividing totals (in this case, for all Instruction (Function 10) expenses in the AFR) by the October 1, 2010 enrollment taken from the Superintendent's Annual Report.  With those diclaimers, here's the list:

School  Classroom Spending 
92 Uintah River High School  $                              14,220
88 Success School  $                                8,203
3D Spectrum Academy  $                                5,835
87 City Academy  $                                5,293
5F Utah Virtual Academy  $                                5,148
86 Pinnacle Canyon Academy  $                                4,860
A1 NUAMES  $                                4,705
89 Soldier Hollow  $                                4,615
A5 Itineris Early College High  $                                4,596
A9 Success Academy  $                                4,537
83 AMES  $                                4,440
2C Intech Early College High School  $                                4,335
4F Salt Lake Center for Science Education  $                                4,285
90 Tuacahn Hs For Performing Arts  $                                4,278
8D Open Classroom School  $                                4,233
7G Summit Academy High School  $                                4,219
5E Edith Bowen  $                                4,183
97 Salt Lake Arts Academy  $                                4,167
95 Timpanogos Academy  $                                4,125
1B Utah County Academy of Sciences  $                                3,987
93 John Hancock  $                                3,968
3G Bear River Charter School  $                                3,966
7E Gateway Preparatory Academy  $                                3,720
81 Walden School  $                                3,690
6C Liberty Academy  $                                3,655
98 Fast Forward Charter High School  $                                3,607
7B Ronald Reagan Academy  $                                3,583
A7 Moab Community School  $                                3,566
6G Weilenmann School of Discovery  $                                3,548
8B American Leadership Academy  $                                3,439
9C Paradigm High School  $                                3,414
1E  Guadalupe Schools  $                                3,392
A8 East Hollywood High  $                                3,384
2D Channing Hall  $                                3,347
4B Wasatch Peak Academy  $                                3,324
1D Renaissance Academy  $                                3,297
68 Ogden Preparatory Academy  $                                3,278
A2 The Ranches Academy Inc  $                                3,245
4C Lakeview Academy  $                                3,231
8G Good Foundation Academy  $                                3,228
5B North Star Academy  $                                3,210
2E Karl G. Maeser  $                                3,187
2G Vista at Entrada  $                                3,187
7D Salt Lake School for Performing Arts   $                                3,166
5C Legacy Prepatory Academy  $                                3,125
7F Excelsior Academy  $                                3,090
82 Freedom Academy  $                                3,069
A3 DaVinci Academy  $                                3,066
7C Monticello Academy  $                                3,049
8C Mountainville Academy  $                                3,042
9E Providence Hall  $                                3,014
2B Lincoln Academy  $                                2,999
A4 Summit Academy  $                                2,997
9B Navigator Pointe Academy  $                                2,988
3C Entheos Academy  $                                2,929
5G Quail Run Primary School  $                                2,926
4E Dual Immersion Academy  $                                2,921
94 Thomas Edison Charter School North  $                                2,912
74 American Preparatory Academy  $                                2,906
1C Odyssey School  $                                2,885
A6 North Davis Preparatory Academy  $                                2,818
9F Open High School of Utah  $                                2,779
1G Oquirrh Mountain Charter School  $                                2,775
5D George Washington Academy  $                                2,763
3E C.S. Lewis Academy  $                                2,759
1F Quest Academy  $                                2,730
9D Canyon Rim Academy  $                                2,728
4G Maria Montessori Acacemy  $                                2,721
6D Noah Webster Academy  $                                2,711
4D Syracuse Arts Academy  $                                2,695
2F Rockwell Charter High School  $                                2,651
6F Early Light Academy at Daybreak  $                                2,636
3B Beehive Sci. & Tech. Acad.  $                                2,624
3F Venture Academy  $                                2,582
8E Merit College Preparatory Academy  $                                2,528
8F Hawthorn  $                                2,254

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