State Report Card
In$ite Chart #3:
Instruction by category and Instructional Support
View/download Instruction by category and Instructional Support (PDF format,
45
KB)
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
Chart #3 removes two large categories: Operations and
Leadership, in order to
assess the costs directly related to supporting the child, the
teacher or the
classroom. This chart includes an aggregate of all five Instruction
sub-categories
– classroom teachers, substitute teachers, paraprofessionals,
classroom
technology and classroom materials – and Instructional Support –
which includes
pupil support (guidance, library, extracurricular and student
health), teacher
support (curriculum development, professional development, etc.) and
program
support (psychologist, personal attendants, social workers, et al.).
The per pupil
expenditure includes all students, in general education as well as
programs
targeted to specific populations such as English language learners
and special
education. This chart does not represent 100% of the total per pupil
expenditure,
but graphically shows the actual of each of the above
sub-categories. The chart
is re-sorted once again, high to low, by per pupil expenditure for
Instruction and
Instructional Support. WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
You are looking
to get a comparative sense of the state’s investment specifically
in teaching and learning, in the child, the teacher and the
classroom. Bear in
mind that district educational decisions such as class size, the
presence of
teacher aides, reading specialists, the specific needs of their
students, and so on
will affect these numbers. More questions than answers
These
charts are not answers or proofs, but merely lenses that offer us
fresh
perspectives. Since we have no standards or ideal expenditures, the
charts raise
some questions that should not go unanswered at the state level.
Questions
such as:
Why do certain districts have such high costs for
substitute teachers? The way In$ite works is to allocate the
money spent on subs hired to cover a teacher
engaged in professional development to the Instructional Support
sub-category
of professional development. Those subs, then, are not included in
the
Instruction category. The substitute teacher costs represented in
the In$ite Chart
#3 apply only to absences due to illness, personal days and the
like.
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