This report contains the comparison data for the annual report on student performance from a school to its community members. The annual performance reports and these data are required by statute (16 V.S.A. §§ 165 (a)(2) and 165 (a)(2)(K)). Data are included for both schools and school districts.
Data for a school includes enrollments, teacher counts, and administrators at the school as reported by school districts. Also included are student/teacher ratios, student/administrator ratios, and teacher/administrator ratios. Schools have been grouped into cohorts based on enrollment and grade configurations and ranked within each cohort by enrollment.
Data for a school district includes student full-time equivalents (FTE) and current expenditures for grades pre-K–12, less special education costs, and the netted current expenditures per student FTE. Special education costs were removed from the figures as there are wide variations in those costs among school districts due both to the number of students served and the services required. School districts were grouped into cohorts based on student FTE’s and grade configurations and ranked within each cohort by student FTE. In prior years, these figures were limited to districts’ own current expenditures. The portion of current expenditures made by supervisory unions on behalf of districts varies greatly. This year’s figures (FY 2009) include district assessments to SUs. The advantage is that districts are more comparable to each other. The consequence is that these figures are NOT comparable to figures used in prior years. (Added 12/19/08)
Current expenditures are based on the federal definition of current expense. These are the expenditures used in a given year to provide an education for students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Expenditures for instruction, support services, general and school administration, business services, operations and maintenance, transportation and enterprise operations are included, although many enterprise operations are supported by fees and charges. Excluded from current expenditures are costs for tuitions and assessments to other providers, community services, adult education programs, equipment, capital construction, and principal and interest payments on long-term debt.
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