Determining the Cost of Education in New Jersey

1
Determining the Cost of Education in New Jersey

• NJ Department of Education
• Presentation before the Joint Legislative
  Committee on Public School Funding Reform
• October 24, 2006

2
Background

• DOE decided that there was a need to explore new
  school funding formula
• Entered contract with Augenblick, Palaich and
  Associates (formerly Augenblick Myers) in 2002
• Chose to use two methods to estimate the cost of
  education

3
Successful School Districts (SSD)

• Establish measurable criteria by which districts
  are deemed successful
• Identify districts that meet that criteria
• Calculate general education expenditures for
  districts meeting that criteria
• Method should not be used to determine costs of
  students with special needs

4
Professional Judgment Panels (PJP)

• Develop educational goals
• Construct prototype school districts
• Have education professionals identify resources
  needed to meet educational goals
• Determine the cost of specified resources
• Apply costs to all school districts and calculate
  weights for special needs students

5
Outline of Discussion

• Discussion of Dr. Augenblicks work with DOE
• Summary of final PJP resources
• Explanation of how cost of PJP resources were
  determined
• Summary of Successful School Districts analysis
• Questions

6
Role of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates

• Assist DOE in the implementation of two methods
  for determining cost of education
• Provide advice on implementing SSD method
• Facilitate PJP meetings
• Advise DOE personnel in calculating the cost of
  PJP resources
• Create formulas to calculate foundation amount
  for all districts and weights for special needs
  students

7
Five Steps of PJP Implementation

• Determine student outcome goals
• Define prototype districts
• Convene panel meetings
• Provide DOE with resources for costing purposes
• Translate resource costs into base cost formulas
  and special needs weights

8
Step 1 Determine Outcome Goals

• NJ educational goals defined by DOE based on
  three factors
• Core Curriculum Content Standards
• No Child Left Behind AYP requirements
• State specified graduation requirements

9
Step 2 Define Prototype Districts

• Review data of school district demographics
• Size
• Student Characteristics
• Based on review, created six prototype districts
• Two K through 8
• Four K through 12
• Allowed for varying rates of low-income and
  limited English proficiency students
• Special education rates consistent across
  districts

10
Step 3 Hold Panel Meetings

• First meeting included seven DOE staff members
• Second meeting included approximately 40 school
  district representatives divided across five
  panels
• Third meeting included eight school district
  representatives

11
Brief Summary of PJP Resources

• General Education
• Special Education
• Limited English Proficiency
• At-Risk
• Resources are not intended to be prescriptive

12
Step 4 Costing Out

• Panel results given to NJ DOE
• DOE responsible for determining the cost of PJP
  resources
• Provided advice on analytic decisions as needed

13
Step 5 Creating Base Cost Formulas and Student
Weights

• Six base per pupil costs translated into a series
  of equations used to determine base cost for each
  school district
• Student weights calculated as the ratio of
  additional cost for special populations relative
  to base cost

14
Determining the Cost of PJP Resources

• Personnel resources specified as FTEs
• Certificated staff salaries determined by median
  salary in certificated staff data
• Non-certificated staff salaries determined by
  median salaries in the State Occupational
  Employment and Wage Estimates (Bureau of Labor
  Statistics)
• Benefit rate equals 20 percent of salaries
• Non-personnel resources recorded in different
  terms

15
Additional Cost Adjustments

• School level PJP costs used to identify costs
  associated with grade spans not included in PJP
  process
• Separate cost analysis conducted to identify
  additional cost of county vocational districts

16
Basic Education Costs in Prototype Districts
Very Small K - 8 Small K - 8 Small K 12 Mod. K - 12 Large K - 12 Very Large K 12
Base Cost 10,057 7,863 8,775 8,215 8,136 8,016
Adj. Base Cost 8,460 7,223
17
Special Needs Weights
K - 8 K 12
Special Education
Speech Only 0.46 0.41
Mod. Impairment 1.95 1.45
Severe Impairment 7.39 4.28
Ext. School Year 0.48 0.43
Prek Disabled 3.18 2.80
At-Risk Education 0.63 0.44
LEP 0.81 0.37
18
Other District Adjustments
District Type Additional Weight
Grade K 6 No additional weight
Grade 7 - 12 0.08
Grade 9 - 12 0.13
County Vocational 0.20
19
Geographic Cost of Education Index

• Developed by Dr. Jay Chambers for NCES
• Accounts for multiple factors that affect the
  cost of hiring comparably skilled professionals
  including
• Housing costs
• Work environment

20
Successful School Districts Analysis

• Success criteria defined by student performance
  on Statewide assessments
• Analysis limited to K 8 and K 12 districts to
  allow for comparison to PJP results
• Alternative criteria that incorporated broader
  range of factors (e.g., attendance and dropout
  rates) did not substantially alter results

21
SSD Results

• 305 school districts identified as successful
• 75 percent of K 8 districts
• 64 percent of K 12 districts
• Per-pupil costs were consistent with PJP results
• 8,004 for K 8 districts, 9 percent higher than
  the median PJP for K 8 districts
• 8,493, almost identical to the median PJP for K
  12 districts