S&P: New Pennsylvania District and School Information Available on Web Site; Diverse Patterns in Education Spending and Student Results Seen Statewide

Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services (SES) posted new findings on Pennsylvania schools and districts on www.ses.standardandpoors.com.

These findings represent the latest in a series of SES reports. Standard & Poor's in May issued Statewide Insights, a report on Pennsylvania as a whole.

Information on each district, available free of charge, provides a written report with key findings and trends; data that compare the district's performance from 1996-97 to 1999-2000; and statistics on spending, student results, demographics and related matters. SES last year posted district information through 1999.

Information on student results and learning environments for individual schools and charter schools is now available for the first time. What's more, visitors to the site can search by zip code, city, county and school/district name to learn about their schools.

The new round of SES district reports provides several key insights, including:

* Of the state's 501 districts, 289 districts increased spending annually from 1997-2000, while increasing scores on the Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment (PSSA) during the same period. However, 168 districts increased spending annually yet experienced a decline in scores on the PSSA. This is yet another indication that student achievement is determined in part by how money is spent, not simply how much money is spent.

* In fact, 11 districts decreased spending and increased scores during the 1997-2000 period.

* Trends in education spending vary by category. For example:

*Eighty-eight districts increased operating expenditures by more than 5% per year from 1997-2000, while 33 districts increased administrative spending by more than 10% per year.

*Many school systems are also borrowing against the future. While 317 districts have experienced some increase in debt levels from 1997 to 2000, 59 districts have increased their debt by more than 50% per student per year.

*The average Pennsylvania district maintains debt balances of $8,695 per student, while spending $7,554 per student on core operations.

"In the eight months since we last issued district reports for Pennsylvania, SES has been used as a means to better understand the pertinent issues facing local communities," said William Cox, managing director of Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services. "Now, the education community has information for four consecutive school years, enabling them to take a more comprehensive look at student performance and school system needs."

Tim Shrom, business manager at the Solanco School District in Lancaster County, has used SES as a management tool since Standard & Poor's launched the service last year. "We used to compare ourselves to the district next door, but with SES, we have begun to access information on rural districts across the state," Shrom said. "This research has enabled us to identify numerous sources of best practices that we can apply here."
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Pete Messina, president of the Interboro School District School Board in Delaware County, uses SES to benchmark the district's spending and student achievement against similar districts. He is also looking to establish financial and academic targets to guide the district's performance over the next three years.

"As a new board president, I could not imagine overseeing a $40 million operation without the analysis of the Standard & Poor's service," Messina said. "It would be like managing in the dark."

Over the next two years, Standard & Poor's will continue to evaluate education performance on school, district and state levels. By the end of this year, Standard & Poor's will again update SES by posting 2000-2001 data and analysis for Pennsylvania schools and districts. All the information on Pennsylvania schools can be found on www.ses.standardandpoors.com and is available to the public free of charge.

Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, provides independent financial information, analytical services, and credit ratings to the world's financial markets. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com. Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading information services provider meeting worldwide needs in education, business, finance, the professions, and government. The corporation employs 16,500 people located in more than 400 offices in 30 countries.
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