Marion County Public Schools is one of just 17 entities nationwide selected to participate in a project to better understand how school districts and their schools spend public tax dollars compared to student learning.
The Comprehensive Center Network (CC Network) chose MCPS to participate in the no-cost project starting next month. The School Spending Data Archive will analyze school funding and expenditures to create visual illustrations comparing costs of programs and resources to student achievement. These charts will illustrate how the district allocates its funds across schools districtwide and how schools spend those funds.
The Archive will enable stakeholders to compare funding distribution on a school-by-school and district basis while allowing administrators to determine what the best Return on Investment is when it comes to spending for students, teachers and programs.
In April, the pilot project continues with the CC Network working with the district to interpret the data on a cost-benefit level. In May, the concluding steps provide communication and protocol trainings to school personnel to share the data publicly.
The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the reporting of spending by every school, but the data can be removed within the same year. This pilot was created to ensure year-over-year data is captured for research and comparisons. The CC Network is working with the U.S. Department of Education and Georgetown University on the project.
For more information, contact the Marion County Public Schools Public Relations Office at (352) 671-7555.