The data analysis of schools’ scores and their relationship to school funding and the poverty and race of students used data from DPI including:
1996-97 Free and Reduced Lunch data for each school.
The data on racial composition for each school is from 1996-97 and was obtained from the Public School Forum.
After eliminating schools for which some of the data were unavailable, 1533 out of 1719 K-8 schools and 317 out of 416 high schools were included in the statistical analyses. These analyses were done using regression techniques. The schools’ performance composite score, which is the percent of students who performed at or above grade level, was used as the dependent variable in regression models for K-8 schools and high schools. The independent variables in the regression models included the total per pupil expenditures (includes local, state, and federal monies), the percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, and the percent of minority students in the school. Since the per pupil expenditure data was available only on the system level, each school within the system was assigned the same value.
A regression analysis of the change in score from 1996-97 to 1997-98 was also done for K-8 schools using the same three independent variables that were included in the other regression models. The change in score for K-8 schools was calculated by subtracting the 1996-97 score from the 1997-98 score.
