School Funding Data Note

About This Data

Unless otherwise noted, all data findings are based on EdTrust-New York’s analysis of publicly available school-level funding data provided by school districts to the New York State Division of the Budget and available here for the 2022-23 school year. 

General education per student funding calculations are based on the projected K-12 enrollment for the 2022-23 school year included in district funding submissions. Special education per student funding calculations are based on the projected K-12 enrollment of students with disabilities for the 2022-23 school year included in district funding submission. Pre-K per student funding calculations are based on projected Pre-K enrollment for the 2022-23 school year included in district funding submissions. 

For our analysis, we categorized schools as either elementary/middle, high, D75, or Other based on the school type and grade spans included in district funding submissions. Elementary/middle schools are defined as schools serving students through grade 9, as well as schools serving grades 6-9. High schools are defined as schools serving students in grades 9-12 or grades 6-12. Schools in New York City Department of Education’s District 75 were classified as D75 schools and analyzed separately. Schools that could not be defined as either elementary/middle schools or high schools (e.g., K-12 schools, schools serving only Pre-K students, etc.) were classified as “Other.” 

School View: 

In districts with less than 10 elementary/middle schools, district averages of per student funding are based on all schools in the district, regardless of elementary/middle school or high school designation. In schools with at least 10 elementary/middle schools, district averages of per student funding are based only on comparable schools (i.e., elementary/middle schools or high schools) and are labeled as such. 

New York City District 75 schools were excluded from both student demographic and per student funding district averages in NYCDOE calculations. These schools are included in a separate D75 district. 

The school-level shares of low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities are based on PK-12 enrollment and are derived from the 2022-23 NYSED Public School Enrollment school level data available here.

In districts with less than 10 elementary/middle schools, district averages of student demographics are based on PK-12 enrollment and are derived from the 2022-23 NYSED. In districts with more than 10 elementary/middle schools, district averages are based on school-level aggregates for all elementary/middle schools or high schools in the district. Any school with missing and/or suppressed data for a specific group of students was excluded from district average calculations for that group of students. Additionally, any schools whose data on students from low-income backgrounds and not from low-income backgrounds did not add up to within 5 percent of total enrollment is excluded from district average calculations. 

In districts with fewer than 10 elementary/middle and/or high schools, a school was designated as having “fewer” or “more” low-income students, students with disabilities, and/or English language learners if the share of those groups in the school were one standard deviation below or above the district average, otherwise schools were designated as having “about the same share of” that student group. Similarly, in districts with fewer than 10 elementary/middle schools and/or high schools, a school was designated as being “smaller than” or “larger than” a typical school if the PK-12 enrollment was one standard deviation below or above the district average; otherwise, schools were designated as being “about the same size as” a typical school in the district. Any school (or district) with missing and/or suppressed data for a specific group of students was excluded from these comparisons. Additionally, any schools whose data on low-income and not low-income students did not add up to a total enrollment figure within 5 percentage points of the school’s publicly posted total enrollment is excluded from district average calculations for low-income students. 

In districts with at least 10 elementary/middle schools and at least 10 high schools, a school was designated as having “fewer” or “more” low-income students, students with disabilities, and/or English language learners if the school was in the bottom or top quartile for the percent of students in that group among all comparable schools within the district; otherwise, schools were designated as having “about the same share of” that student group. Similarly, in districts with at least 10 elementary/middle schools and at least 10 high schools, a school was designated as being “smaller than” or “larger than” a typical school if the PK-12 enrollment of that school was in the bottom or top quartile of enrollment among all comparable schools within the district; otherwise schools were designated as being “about the same size as” a typical school in the district. 

Any school with missing data was excluded from these comparisons. Schools with suppressed data for a specific student group were considered on a case-by-case basis and would be included in the bottom quartile if it could be inferred that the largest number of suppressed students (n = 4) would firmly place the school in the bottom quartile. However, if that inference could not be made, the school was excluded from the analysis. 

District View: 

The district-level highest/lowest need school analysis is limited to mid/large-sized districts that meet one of two sets of criteria. 

First, a school district is included if they have at least 10 elementary/middle schools and/or at least 10 high schools. In these circumstances, a school is designated as “lowest need” or “highest need” if the share of students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and/or Multilingual learners is in the bottom or top quartile for the percent of students in that group among all comparable schools within the district. In addition, a school is designated as being “lowest need” in our “combined overall need” measure if the school is designated as “lowest need” (bottom quartile) in at least two student group categories and “highest need” if the school is designated as “highest need” (top quartile) in at least two student group categories. 

The analysis excludes certain schools with nontraditional grade spans, such as K-12 and K-8 schools. Any school with missing data is also excluded from this analysis. All quartiles are unweighted, and the top and bottom quartiles can be uneven due to missing data and/or suppression. 

Compare Schools View: 

The analysis excludes certain designated specialized schools, such as District 75 in NYCDOE. Any school with missing data was also excluded from this analysis. All quartiles are unweighted, and the top and bottom quartiles can be uneven due to missing data and/or suppression. School types and enrollment levels in the school selector field are based on the data included in district funding submissions. The school-level shares of low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities in the school selector field are based on PK-12 enrollment and are derived from the 2022-23 NYSED Public School Enrollment data. 

Student 3-8 grade ELA/math proficiency data are from the 2021-2022 Report Card Database available here.  Graduation rate data are from the 2021-22 Graduation Rate Database available here.