tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480995.post4927408550807806413..comments2023-07-16T09:43:40.228-04:00Comments on The Conversation: A Pennsylvania tragedyJonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480995.post-4475917870305721762007-07-13T07:41:00.000-04:002007-07-13T07:41:00.000-04:00Comparing poor and affluent school districts on th...Comparing poor and affluent school districts on the basis of test scores, by the way, is inherently unfair. When I was at the Trib, we worked with a Pitt researcher to do regression analysis of state test scores. We found that about 80 percent of the variations in scores between school districts could be attributed to socio-economic status. (As determined by the percentage of students who qualified for low- and reduced-price lunches, a standard measure of poverty in education research.)<BR/><BR/>Now of course that doesn't mean that we should accept mediocrity for low-income students. It cheats them and ultimately it cheats all of us. But acknowledging these facts is necessary if we are going to have an honest conversation about school reform.Jonathan Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480995.post-15747466259656885432007-07-12T15:19:00.000-04:002007-07-12T15:19:00.000-04:00"Nintendo invested more that $140 million in resea..."Nintendo invested more that $140 million in research and development in 2002 alone. The U.S. federal government spent <B>less than half as much</B> on research and innovation in education."<BR/><BR/>(From <A HREF="http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2007/07/and-now-for-something-completely.html" REL="nofollow">this</A> video.)Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10439330154875628083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480995.post-26165362381933122442007-07-11T19:28:00.000-04:002007-07-11T19:28:00.000-04:00There was a time when I could have given you a sat...There was a time when I could have given you a satisfactory answer to your question, back when I wrote about education for the Trib. That was five years ago.<BR/><BR/>I can say that when I was at the Trib, covering the Pittsburgh city schools, the Allegheny Institute had a bad habit of including capital expenditures--including, I believe, debt service--in its per-pupil cost calculations, which meant that the figures did not reflect what was actually spent on instruction.<BR/><BR/>I'm hazy on what formula, if any, the state uses to determine subsidies for school districts. I seem to recall that the governor and legislature decided on an education budget, and then a formula was used from there to figure out how much each district got. The state also gave districts subsidies for special education, based on the assumption that 15 percent of the students in every district had special needs. This was unfair to poor districts, as they tend to have a higher proportion of special needs students, and during the early part of the decade I recall--again, hazy memory--that poverty became more of a factor in doling this money out.<BR/><BR/>Bottom line, I'm almost positive that Duquesne does get more per pupil than Mt. Lebanon. I'm assuming that debt service and other legacy costs are probably eating away the budget in Duquesne.Jonathan Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7480995.post-92123759961487756742007-07-11T17:04:00.000-04:002007-07-11T17:04:00.000-04:00I posted the below over at Tube City, but putting ...I posted the below over at Tube City, but putting it here maybe increases the chance my question will be answered...<BR/><BR/>You know, I freely admit that I am one of the bloggers that dropped the ball on this. Jonathan Potts picked it up and ran with it today. The thing is, somewhere I had found a link to the Allegheny Institute website, where they claimed (6/1/07) the students were having some outrageous amount of state money spent on them (16,000 per student), and the school was still closing. This makes no sense to me, and in fact was somewhat intimidating. I just don’t know enough to have a logical opinion on this. The PG mentioned something about debt service in the district, maybe that is what is eating up the state money. The Institute claimed the state was spending more per student than Mount Lebanon spends per student in its district. Maybe there is an apples and oranges thing going on, but I don’t really know.EdHeathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09109361235271107574noreply@blogger.com