Best districts do not necessarily spend the most

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Niche.com recently released their K-12 School and District Rankings.   Where did your local school district land on the ranking?  How much did they spend to get there?

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CommenTerry

Niche.com, Inc. is a Pittsburgh, PA-based company that evaluates and ranks K-12 schools, colleges, cities, and neighborhoods.  They recently released their 2015 ranking of public schools and school districts in each state, as well as a national ranking of private and public schools and districts.

Niche researchers evaluated dozens of variables in eight categories and weighted each. Factors included academic performance (50%), health and safety (10%), student culture and diversity (10%), parent and student survey responses (10%), teachers (10%), resources and facilities (5%), extracurricular activities (2.5%), and sports and fitness (2.5%).  Obviously, the ranking reflects more than just test scores or graduation rates.  The total school environment was taken into account.

After compiling the data and weighting each factor, Niche determined that Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools was the best school district in North Carolina (see Facts and Stats below).  Unfortunately, Chapel Hill-Carrboro failed to land in the top 100 districts in the nation.  In fact, no Chapel Hill-Carrboro high school made the list of the top 100 high schools in the nation.  (Raleigh Charter High School (#52) was the only school in North Carolina to appear on Niche’s high school ranking.)

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools is a well-funded district, but by no means do they spend the most per student.  During the 2013-14 school year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro spent $10,872 per student on operating expenses, which was the 15^th highest expenditure in North Carolina.  Compare that level of spending to the fifth-ranked district, Union County Schools.  Union County’s per student expenditure was far lower than the state average of $8,477.  Their $7,611 expenditure ranked 112 of 115 districts in the state.  That is a remarkable achievement.

On the other end of the spectrum is Northampton County Schools, which spent $11,886 per student last year, which was the fifth highest expenditure in the state, but was the lowest ranked district.  A number of other districts occupy the lowest quartile of the Niche ranking and the highest quartile of per pupil spending.

This is not to say that money does not matter.  Funding is necessary, but not sufficient, to operate a successful school district.  There are numerous other factors that play a role.  School culture, working conditions, parental involvement, and community support, are essential. Unfortunately, those key factors are difficult to describe and quantify, and of course cannot be purchased in bulk from Office Max.

Facts and Stats

Niche ranking and per pupil expenditure (PPE) for N.C. School Districts

Sources: Niche.com and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Statistical Profile

Acronym of the Week

PPE — per pupil expenditure

Quote of the Week

"But as a nation, the United States cannot pretend that education dollars are endless, and we must address the issue of spending effectiveness. This is not an academic point, given lackluster education revenues."

– Ulrich Boser, "Return on Educational Investment, 2014: A District-by-District Evaluation of U.S. Educational Productivity," Center for American Progress, July 9, 2014.

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