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Maryland State Report Card

Maryland State Department of Education Releases 2018-2019 Per-Pupil Allocation in State Report Card

Beginning this year, MSDE will add per-pupil spending data as part of the annually published school report cards. States must provide this information as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA—a federal law that seeks to ensure equity, accountability and a quality education for all public school students. A number of factors impact a school’s level of per-student funding. These factors include the number of students in the school, special education services provided, school designations, such as Title I and Focus schools, and the experience level of the staff—for example, having more veteran teachers versus new teachers in a school building. This information will be posted publicly starting June 23.

Important Information / Timelines

  • Local School Systems submitted draft expenditure reports in February 2020, MSDE
  • reviewed and provided feedback
  • Local School Systems submitted final, certified reports in April 2020
  • School-level per pupil expenditure data reported on Report Card website June 23, 2020

Important Information / Reporting
Factors that impact differences in school-level costs

  • Programs offered at the school; Title I, Magnet, IB, CTE, and Special Education programs
  • The experience level and salaries of individual teachers employed at a school
  • The age of a school building
  • School systems had the option of including a note for a school with a significantly different per-pupil cost than similar schools in the district
  • Data reported does not include numbers of Pre-K students

Other Information

 
 

School-level per-pupil expenditures are local school system operating expenditures directly attributed to schools or allocated to schools based on certain criteria and reported as a per-pupil or per-student amount. The school-level per-pupil data can vary across school systems and within school systems due to many factors, including the number of students enrolled in the school, specific school-based programs, and the experience level of staff at the school.

The data can be another tool or resource for school leaders, parents, policy makers, and the public to better understand the factors involved in education funding. The data can show the variation in costs based on the needs of students served in a particular school. The data can show the impact of more experienced teachers versus new teachers on school-level costs. The Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires all states to publish actual per-pupil expenditures, disaggregated by source of funds (federal and State/local) for all schools and school districts in the State. MSDE is publishing local school system perpupil expenditures for fiscal year 2019 or school year 2018-2019. Maryland school districts followed a standard methodology to develop the school-level per-pupil expenditure data that MSDE is reporting.

Per-pupil expenditure data do not always allow for accurate direct comparisons, because factors can vary widely from school-toschool. Those factors include the number of students in the school, the experience level of the staff (long-serving, experienced employees have higher salaries), and the existence of school-based programs (e.g., does the school have a Title I designation or does the school have a special program for an identified group of students?). How is the data calculated? Maryland’s school level per-pupil expenditure methodology includes expenditures connected to students and allocates expenditures to schools based on the type of expenditure and the most appropriate denominator (number of students). Expenditures reported in the instruction (including salaries and materials), special education, maintenance, pupil personnel, transportation, and food services State Categories are included in the calculation. The local school system level data is the sum of all district-wide (central office) expenditures by source of funds (federal or State/local) divided by the total enrollment. The school-level per-pupil expenditure amount by source includes the school’s share of the district-wide costs. Therefore, the individual school-level per-pupil expenditure amounts will not sum to the local school system per-pupil expenditure total. THE MARYLAND REPORT CARD: School-level Per-Pupil Expenditure Reporting MSDE has developed a Maryland School Report Card User’s Guide to help you better understand the accountability system measures and School Report Cards. To see the latest School Report Cards, view the User’s Guide, and find more information, please visit: MdReportCard.org 06.2020 v.1

Visit the MD State Report Card website and follow these instructions.

The per-pupil expenditure data can be found on the Maryland Report Card Website, MdReportCard.org. To see the expenditure data for your school, visit your school’s report page and click on the Demographics tab. Select Per Pupil Expenditures on the left hand side.

Maryland School Report Card Website