User's Guide: Reading the Reports

School Report – Page 2
Field #7: Financial information (per pupil)

Data source: In$ite®.
For more information about In$ite, go to the Rhode Island Department of Education.
 

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT

The In$ite financial reporting system breaks down all school-level expenditures into the four major categories indicated in bold in the key at the lower left-hand of this field. The first bar graph shows the allocation of all school expenditures that include every school program, such as Special Education and Vocational Education. The bar graph just below shows the state average for that school’s level: elementary, middle or high. The state average is not a recommended standard or ideal, but merely an anchor for the purposes of comparison. The table at the lower right shows the per pupil expenditure in each program. Please note that the per pupil is not a simple headcount but a count according to full-time equivalent or FTE. (See further explanation below.)

WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR

You are looking to get a sense of how your school allocates its resources. Expenditures might reflect the especially high or low challenges of the children in the building or educational decisions that require a different-than-average investment, such as a full-time social worker for Instructional Support.

In$ite’s school-to-school, district-to-district comparisons

Each school district in Rhode Island uses its own accounting systems and will probably continue to do so. Differing systems make specific district-to-district or school-to-school comparisons impossible, obscuring any clear understanding of the state’s education finances as a whole. In$ite does not replace an accounting system, but is designed to be a reporting tool that aids fiscal management. As a relational database, In$ite brings managerial accounting capabilities to the education field. In$ite is a management aid that provides decision-makers with relevant, timely, and user-friendly information that can illuminate how schools might become more efficient and productive.

Common agreements among all business managers

For over three years, RI’s district business managers worked with RIDE and In$ite to convert all school and district expenditures into a common language determined largely by In$ite, but tailored for the state’s specific needs.

In the first phase, business managers put the information about the district and its expenditures from the district’s accounting system into the In$ite structure.

In the second phase, called “mapping,” business managers transferred their categories and numbers into the specific In$ite categories in a lengthy process of hammering out detailed common agreements about definitions for where each dollar is posted. In the end, these managers created and continue to refine a common “map” that guides the placement of every dollar. For each accounting cell, however small, the state has agreement as to where each cost is allocated.

The third phase involved allocating district or “central office” expenditures out to the schools, when appropriate. Certain costs that are paid at the district level, including employee benefits, food service, transportation, and others, are then allocated to schools, as appropriate, to give a picture of the true cost of running that school.

In the last step of the process, managers and RIDE began using the In$ite system reports to generate some district comparisons for review. Not surprisingly, whenever the districts compared final numbers, oddities in the results would raise questions about the input, mapping, and allocation processes or the educational decisions of particular districts. Over time, the oddities decreased and confidence in the accuracy of the data rose.

Warning! Be wary of misunderstanding numbers out of context

Please do not jump to any conclusions before you have spoken to the appropriate district financial managers. Often district decisions or variables easily explain numbers that initially seem excessively high or low.

Per-pupil expenditures

All expenditure dollars on the school and district charts are expressed as a per-pupil figure. These per-pupil expenditures are based on the Average Daily Membership (ADM) of students and then their full-time equivalent (FTE) in their respective programs. Per pupil is not a simple headcount, but a count by FTE. A child enrolled for an entire school year in a full-day program equals one FTE. A half-day kindergarten student enrolled for a full year equals ½, or 0.5, FTE. If a student was not enrolled for the full year, his or her FTE would decrease by the time not enrolled. Thus, the half-day kindergarten student enrolled for only half a year equals ¼, or 0.25, FTE.

Each student’s FTE is then divided by the educational programs provided to that student. A child’s participation in Special Education Resource or English as a Second Language is counted only as a percentage of that child’s day. In a six-period day, a child who spends one period in a specific program will count as one sixth for that program. Six such periods a day for the full school year would account for the full-time equivalent (FTE) and for a full year’s per-pupil expenditure for that program.

 

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For further information call the Rhode Island Department of Education at 401-222-4600 x2231. Information Works! is produced in collaboration with the National Center on Public Education.