All that DRAMA and now a $34M slush fund at FCPS

[Anonymous]

Look at the staffing ratios for schools with higher FRM %. I doubt that it reaches 3X but schools with larger percentages of "poorer" students get significantly more teachers etc. There may be something in Special Education that is correlated with lower SES. And then there is Title 1 and Title 3 spending...

From the Budget: Needs-Based Staffing
At the elementary, middle, and high school levels, a weighted factor is applied to the number of FRM eligible students at each school with 20 percent or more of its
student population eligible for FRM in the general education staffing formula to generate additional staffing. The weighted factors vary depending on the percentage
of FRM eligible students at a school to ensure that schools with larger populations of FRM eligible students receive increased additional staffing. Details of the different
weighted factors for needs-based staffing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels can be found in the Staffing Standards section located in the Appendix.
In addition to the additional teacher positions allocated to schools with higher FRM, schools may generate additional assistant principal, clerical, instructional assistant,
and custodial positions since those staffing formulas are based in part on the total number of teacher positions allocated to schools.

As an example; a "standard school" with 0% FRM is allocated 19 GenEd teachers and has average class size of 26.3. For 50% FRM the teacher allocation increases 21% to 23 teachers. The average class size is reduced to 21.7.

It should be possible to analyze which districts/zip codes are net payors and which are net payees. There are people in McLean who complain that they are short-changed in getting teachers.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to compare without analyzing special programs, etc.

Here's one comparison of two schools within three miles of each other:
poor school: less than 10 per teacher/specialist
wealthy school: more than 14

That's a fairly substantial difference. Almost 50% more in the poor school--but, again, this is just anencdotal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to compare without analyzing special programs, etc.

Here's one comparison of two schools within three miles of each other:
poor school: less than 10 per teacher/specialist
wealthy school: more than 14

That's a fairly substantial difference. Almost 50% more in the poor school--but, again, this is just anencdotal.

But not 3 times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the staffing ratios for schools with higher FRM %. I doubt that it reaches 3X but schools with larger percentages of "poorer" students get significantly more teachers etc. There may be something in Special Education that is correlated with lower SES. And then there is Title 1 and Title 3 spending...

From the Budget: Needs-Based Staffing
At the elementary, middle, and high school levels, a weighted factor is applied to the number of FRM eligible students at each school with 20 percent or more of its
student population eligible for FRM in the general education staffing formula to generate additional staffing. The weighted factors vary depending on the percentage
of FRM eligible students at a school to ensure that schools with larger populations of FRM eligible students receive increased additional staffing. Details of the different
weighted factors for needs-based staffing at the elementary, middle, and high school levels can be found in the Staffing Standards section located in the Appendix.
In addition to the additional teacher positions allocated to schools with higher FRM, schools may generate additional assistant principal, clerical, instructional assistant,
and custodial positions since those staffing formulas are based in part on the total number of teacher positions allocated to schools.

As an example; a "standard school" with 0% FRM is allocated 19 GenEd teachers and has average class size of 26.3. For 50% FRM the teacher allocation increases 21% to 23 teachers. The average class size is reduced to 21.7.

It should be possible to analyze which districts/zip codes are net payors and which are net payees. There are people in McLean who complain that they are short-changed in getting teachers.

And this doesn't factor in all the additional ESOL teachers, special ed teachers, the parent liason position, the additional reading and math specialists, the instructional coaches, and the assistant teachers. Often not only are there more classroom teachers and specialists, but also more assistants in the classroom.