An independent guide to New York education
THE NYFERA LIBRARY
Explore practical guides to New York schools, public data, and the decisions that matter to your family.
Per-pupil spending and total school budget are different measures. Per-pupil spending divides a defined set of expenditures by enrollment, while a total budget is the full sum…
Correlation means two things move together; causation means one thing produces a change in another. Education research often finds correlations in test scores, funding, attendance, or school…
Inflation adjustment converts raw school spending figures into comparable dollars, but the result depends on which price index is used and which month of the school year…
Enrollment trends describe how many students were counted at a school, in a district, or statewide during a defined reporting period — not how good a school…
A school visit is the only reliable way to judge a school's culture, but open days are staged events. Prepare about 30 minutes of homework beforehand, observe…
School data can be suppressed or missing for several reasons: privacy rules hide small groups, some categories do not apply, districts may not report a value, and…
New York State's official accountability designation for a school is assigned by the New York State Education Department under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act and is…
A single rating or test score compresses different subjects, student groups, years, and assumptions into one number that looks more certain than it is. A better comparison…
Per-pupil spending figures differ between sources because each source builds a ratio differently: which dollars count in the numerator, which students count in the denominator, which year…
Comparing school results can be misleading because test scores and league tables often reflect student intake and demographics more than school quality. They are also noisy, and…
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