User's Guide: Reading the Reports
District Report – Page 4
View/download sample district chart (PDF format,
19
KB)
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT
The pie chart on the upper left represents the per-pupil
expenditure at its most inclusive. Total expenditures were divided
by the number of pupils to arrive at a gross or unadjusted per-pupil
expenditure. The pie chart on the upper right removes both the
student count for those served out of district and the “Other
Commitments” category, which includes such expenditures as debt
service on new facilities or large repairs and other sorts of costs
that vary a great deal between districts because of peculiarities of
circumstance. The pie chart on the right are those expenses that are
comparable district to district, just as they are from school to
school (instruction, instructional support, operations, and
leadership). The subsequent graphs are details of some of the
individual categories represented in the large pie at the top right.
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
You are looking to get a sense of how your district allocates its
resources. Expenditures might reflect the especially high or low
challenges of the children in the district or educational decisions
that require a higher-than-average investment. District expenditures
should not necessarily be the same. District leaders make many
policy and educational program decisions in the best interests of
their particular student body and with the resources available to
them. In$ite allows us to examine the investments associated with
those decisions and policies. Sources of revenue
This pie chart shows a break-out of where the overwhelming
majority of the money for this district’s schools comes from. The
state contribution, known as state aid, is calculated by a formula
that was signed into law as the education portion of the State’s
Budget for fiscal year 2000-2001 . The local revenue is the support
raised by the city or town through property taxes. Federal support
might be money from a variety of federal programs administered by
RIDE or federal grants a district obtained directly in a federally
sponsored competition (e.g., National Science Foundation, U.S.
Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, or NASA).
Some districts may have additional monies from corporations or
foundations (e.g., the Rhode Island Foundation) that may not be
accounted for in this pie chart.
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