RI Schools: The Basic Facts
Profile of Schools, Student Characteristics,
   and Kids Count

Learning and Achievement
Assessments
Disaggregations
Accountability
How Rhode Island Classifies Schools
2004 School-Performance Classification:
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Using Information
State Indicators
Value Added:
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Attendance and Graduation Rates,
Learning Support Indicators:
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Safe and Supportive Environments
Students' Point of View:Middle  |High
Suspensions

Equity and Adequacy of Resources
Property Value/Student Compared to
   Tax Rate
Tax Capacity and Effort
In$ite: Including Other Commitments
In$ite: Excluding Other Commitments
Out-of-District Obligations
In$ite: Instruction
In$ite: General Education
Middle  |High

Curriculum and Instruction
Advanced Placement Exams
Teaching Practices:
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Inclusion
Students with Disabilities
Students with Disabilities: Participation
Elementary  |Middle  |High
Students with Disabilities: Participation by District
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Engaging Families
Elementary  |Middle  |High

Per-Pupil Instruction and Instructional Support Expenditures by District (32 KB)
High Schools (32 KB)
Middle Schools (28 KB)

What you are looking at

This Per-Pupil Instruction and Instructional Support Expenditures by District chart 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 subcategories – 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 cost of each of the above subcategories. 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$ite works is to allocate the money spent on substitutes hired to cover a teacher engaged in professional development to the Instructional Support subcategory of professional development. Those substitutes, then, are not included in the Instruction category. The substitute-teacher costs represented in the In$ite Instruction and Instructional Support charts apply only to absences due to illness, personal days, and the like.