"Estimating the Cost of an Adequate Education in Montana”

January 2007

“Sufficient funding so that schools and districts have a reasonable chance to meet state and federal student performance expectations.”

• Performance expectations include:
• State statutes
• The state education accountability system
• Compliance with NCLB, including 100 percent of students meeting reading and math proficiency targets by 2014

Editorial comment: Achieving 100 percent proficiency is an unprecedented and, experts argue, unattainable goal. Robert Linn, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, calls the 100% proficiency standard “unrealistically high.”

Adequacy definition also includes legislature’s 2005 definition of a “basic system of free quality public elementary and secondary schools,” which includes a list of educational inputs, e.g. minimum standards, qualified teachers, programs for students with special needs, appropriate facilities and school technology, among others.

Per Pupil Costs
Base costs (for students without special needs):
Small districts (<501 students): $11,682
Moderate districts (501-1200 students): $9,459
Large districts (1,201 - 3000 students) : $9,028
Very large districts (>3000 students): $9,030

Special needs weightings:

• 0.77, 1.32, and 2.93 for students with mild, moderate, and severe disabilities
• A logarithmic formula for at-risk students (see p. 57) based on enrollment that results in weightings mostly between 0.25 and 0.50
• A logarithmic formula for ELL students (see p. 58) based on enrollment that results in weightings mostly between 0.50 and 0.80

K-12 school systems:
An average of $12,646 per pupil

K-8 school systems:
An average of $13,159 per pupil

K-12 school systems: $624 million (61 percent)

K-8 school systems: $101 million (91 percent)

Total: $725 million (64 percent)

Major recommendations from the Professional Judgment panels:

• Smaller classes sizes
• Increased preschool availability
• Full-day kindergarten
• Before-, after-, and summer school programs to help struggling students
• Additional teachers and support staff for ELL and at-risk students
• Increased professional development for teachers, including on-site instructional facilitators to work with teachers.

The authors found that “Montana falls behind almost all nearby states in terms of compensating its teachers…. Left unchecked, this problem will over time cause recruitment and retention problems.” Authors noted that this was true in many industries in Montana. Authors recommended across-the-board 6.1% salary increase for all personnel and included that in the calculated costs.

In May 2007, the state Legislature passed a school funding bill that increased funding by $140 million over two years, including significant funding to increase teacher salaries, plus a $10 million one-time appropriation to allow districts to start all-day kindergarten programs.

Professional Judgment/Evidence-based:
Authors convened 9 panels, each with 6-10 participants, for a total of 69 panelists. All panelists were “experienced” educators from districts meeting 2005-2006 performance standards to the extent possible, including as many educators as possible who had received recognition for professional excellence.

• Four panels identified school-level resource needs for students without special needs
• Two special needs panels identified the needs of special needs students (one for small districts and one for large districts)
• Two panels added district-level resource needs
• A statewide overview panel reviewed the work of previous panels to resolve inconsistencies and provide input regarding salary comparisons with other states

Authors created hypothetical model schools and districts in four different sizes, the same models used in Montana’s 2002 study. Percentages of special education and English Learner students were constant across the models, while the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches (“at-risk students”) varied to reflect actual variations across districts of varying size.

Authors developed and gave panelists starting figures for school-level staffing needs for teachers, principals, instructional leaders, and teacher tutors, based on evidence-based analyses, and evidence-based recommendations of technology needs. .

Authors used the professional judgment data to extrapolate “weightings” for students with special needs.

Successful School Districts:
The authors chose not to present a full Successful School District analysis, because only two years of data were available. The authors used three standards:

(1) “On pace” to meet 2013-2014 goal of 100% proficiency
(2) “On pace” to meet 2009-2010 goal of 80% proficiency in reading and 73% proficiency in math.
(3) Already meeting the 2009-2010 goals.

Authors note that “only a handful of systems met this [last] target. The number was so low that APA believes the results, if presented, would be spurious and misleading.”

Preschool is included in the study

This study did not consider capital funding for facilities, etc., transportation, food service, adult education, or community service costs, which are ordinarily excluded from adequacy studies.

None

The Montana Quality Education Coalition, a non-profit organization comprised of school districts and state education organizations