Guide to the Report for Individual Schools

For most data on students and staff, data is reported for the 2009-2010 school year. Budget data is reported for 2010-2011.

School Budget: Funding Source and Use of Funds

The Department of Education (DOE) allows principals to exercise some discretion in the use of their budgets. Our report includes data on the source of funds provided to each school, in per pupil terms, and the percentage of the total budget allocated to each of three categories:

Classroom Instruction includes the cost of teachers, books, supplies, classroom equipment and other classroom and library staff.

Instructional Support includes guidance counselors, related services for special education students, parent coordinators, and other school staff as well as the supplies and equipment used by these staff.

School Administration includes the cost of the principal, assistant principal(s), and staff in the school office, as well as office equipment and pupil transportation for trips and activities.

The money in a school's budget comes from a variety of sources. Our report includes every dollar allocated to a school in 2010-2011 in the following categories:

Contract for Excellence is the state funding provided as a result of the successful Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.

Federal Other is the so-called "stimulus funding" provided to school districts as a result of the recent recession. That funding expired at the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

Federal Title 1 provides funds to assist schools in low income communities.

City Funds, Fair Student Funding and State-Other are funds provided out of the general operating budgets of New York City and State.

Private funding is money that comes from private donations or grants.

The source of our school budget data is the May, 2011 School Leadership Team View file provided to us by the DOE.

Building Utilization

The Department of Education estimates the number of students that each school or building can physically hold. That definition depends not only on the size of the building, but also the particular use of the classrooms. The utilization rate is simply the actual number of students in the school divided by the computed capacity of the school. Schools with utilization rates above 102.5% are considered overcrowded by IBO. The source of this data is the DOE Blue Book.

Class Size

For grades kindergarten through eight, we report the average class size in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 compared with the citywide averages for those years. For high schools, we report the average class sizes in each of those years in each of four core courses—math, English, science, and social studies. Again, citywide averages are provided for comparisons. The source of these data is the DOE's annual class size report.

Teacher Experience and Mobility

The reported data is derived from individual personnel records maintained by the DOE and provided to IBO for each of the last 10 years. Median years teaching is the experience level of teachers in the school. Half the teachers in the school have fewer years of teaching experience than the median and half have more. Three year attrition rates describe the percent of teachers who were in the school in 2006-2007 who had either left this school, or the school system entirely, by 2009-2010.

Student Attendance

This is simply the percent of students who are in school (not absent) on a typical day. The source of these data is IBO's analysis of individual student records.

Achievement Test Scores

In grades three through eight, all students take the annual New York State Achievement Tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and math. These tests characterize student scores into four categories. The definitions assigned to the four categories were revised in 2010, and they are now as follows: Level 1 – Below Standard; Level 2 – Meets Basic Standard; Level 3 – Meets Proficiency Standard; and, Level 4 – Exceeds Proficiency Standard. The source of these data is IBO's analysis of individual student records.

Eligibility for Lunch Subsidy (Poverty)

Students whose families have incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level ($31,379 for a family of four in New York in 2010) are eligible for free school meals. Those whose family income is between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced price school meals. We report the percent of students in a school in each of these categories as well as the percent who submitted a form that indicated family income above those levels and the percent who did not submit a valid form.

Student Age for Grade

The source of this indicator is IBO's analysis of individual student records. Students in kindergarten in 2009-2010 are considered standard age if they were born in 2004; they are considered over age if they were born prior to 2004. For first grade, standard age means a birth year of 2003; second grade, 2002, and so on.

Special Education Status

The percentage of students in the school classified as special education was derived from individual student records, which include an indicator of special education status.

English Language Services

The percentage of students in the school classified as English Language Learners was derived from individual student records, which include an indicator of this status.

Placement of Middle School Graduates

This reports the outcomes of the 2009-2010 high school application process for students in each middle school, or school with an eighth grade. Two indicators are reported: the percent of students who were placed in their first choice high school and the percent of students ultimately placed in high schools categorized into four categories based upon their ultimate graduation rate.

Performance Profile for Incoming Students (High Schools only)

We also examined the 2008-2009 high school application process to determine the achievement profile of each high school's incoming class. For both ELA and math, we report the first quartile scale score (25% of incoming students fall below this score; median score (half of the incoming students fall below this score) and third quartile scale score (75 % of incoming students fall below this score.) Citywide averages are provided for comparison purposes.

Regents Exam, Advanced Placement, and SAT Scores

These data have been taken directly from the DOE's website and have not been modified by IBO.

High school students in New York City (and State) participate in the Regents testing program. Except for students at a limited number of schools with a programmatic waiver, no public school student may earn a high school diploma in New York State without first passing five Regents exams – Comprehensive English, Math A, Global History and Geography, U.S. History and Government, and any of the sciences. Students sit for these exams at various points in their high school career, and there is no standard pattern to their test taking. Further, students may retake exams they have attempted and failed until they attain a passing score.

The data reported for individual high schools looks at a school's student body in 2009-10 and calculates the total number of Regents exams that those students need to pass in order to graduate. (If one student needs to pass five exams, another student needs three, and a third student needs one, the total number required for those three students is nine.) It then divides the number of passing scores in the school that year by the total needed to produce the Average Completion Rate for Remaining Regents.

Advanced Placement exams are taken by advanced students. The data reported for each school is the number of students who took APs; the total number of exams that they took, and the percent of those tests that earned scores of 3 (qualified,) 4 (well-qualified) or 5 (extremely well-qualified). Typically, colleges will award course credit for subjects in which an AP score of 3 or higher was earned.

The SAT is used by colleges to evaluate candidates for admission. Scores range from 200-800 in each of three areas: Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. The average score for each of those areas is reported for each high school as well as the number of students in the school that took the SAT in 2009-2010.