Statistics on children, youth and families in Pennsylvania from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
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Why This Indicator Matters
[1] Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (2024). Expenditures Glossary of Terms. Department of Education. https://www.education.pa.gov/Teachers%20-%20Administrators/School%20Finances/Finances/AFR%20Data%20Summary/Pages/Expenditures.aspx
[2] Morgan, I., & Amerikaner, A. (2018). Funding Gaps 2018: An Analysis of School Funding Equity across the U.S. and within Each State. Education Trust. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED587198.pdf
[3] Lapp, G. & Shaw-Amoah, A. (2023). Pennsylvania School Funding and School Staffing Disparities. Research for Action. https://www.researchforaction.org/research-resources/k-12/pennsylvania-school-funding-and-school-staffing-disparities/
[4] The Commonwealth Institute. (2017). Unequal Opportunities: Fewer Resources, Worse Outcomes for Students in Schools with Concentrated Poverty. https://thecommonwealthinstitute.org/tci_research/unequal-opportunities-fewer-resources-worse-outcomes-for-students-in-schools-with-concentrated-poverty/#:~:text=Similarly%2C%20almost%20all%20high%20schools,likely%20to%20graduate%20on%2Dtime
Definition and Source
PROVIDER
Definition
Actual Instruction Expense - Includes all general fund expenditures as reported on the annual financial report by the school districts except those expenditures for health services, transportation, debt service, capital outlay, homebound instruction, early intervention, community/junior college education programs and payments to area vocational-technical schools. Deductions are also made for selected local, state and federal revenues and for refunds of prior year expenditures and receipts from other local education agencies. It is calculated in accord with Section 2501 of the “Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949.”
Actual Instruction Expense per Weighted Average Daily Membership (AIE/WADM) - Actual instruction expense divided by the weighted average daily membership.
Weighted Average Daily Membership (WADM) - The assignment of weight by grade level to the average daily membership. The current weighting is half-time kindergarten at 0.5, full-time kindergarten at 1.0, elementary (grades 1-6) at 1.0, and secondary (grades 7-12) at 1.36.
Notes
ND = No Data Available.
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