Exposing Racial Inequality in Dallas ISD: School Equity Spreadsheet design 4-16-18

A spreadsheet with one row for each of 228 Dallas ISD schools, and 95 columns of student, teacher, achievement, and financial data by student in each school, will quickly expose any racial equity issues in Dallas ISD!  It will also expose how need-mandated funds are being used, if they are truly supplementary, or if they are being supplanted by the reduction of regular funds in schools with a large population of students receiving such need based funds.

Such a School Equity Spreadsheet will allow anyone to explore instantly any of these 95 variables and the relationships between them in any single school, or in any sub-grouping of Dallas ISD schools.  Here is a first detailed draft of suggested variables being requested 4-16-18 from the Public Information Request Division in Dallas ISD for this proposed School Equity Spreadsheet:

Item #	School Equity Spreadsheet Column data - one school per row with one column for each following data item:
1	Date Data is recorded
2	School Year represented in this data
3	School Name
4	Street Address
5	zip code
6	Census tract
	Student Enrollment:
7	# in pk
8	# in k
9	# in 1
10	# in 2
11	# in 3
12	# in 4
13	# in 5
14	# in 6
15	# in 7
16	# in 8
17	# in 9
18	# in 10
19	# in 11
20	# in 12
21	total enrollment
22	total enrollment capacity
23	White student enrollment
24	African American Enrollment
25	Hispanic Student Enrollment
26	American Indian Enrollment
27	Asian Enrollment
28	Hawaiian Enrollment
29	Multi-racial Enrollment
30	Ethnicity not reported
31	Total Female Students
32	Total Male Students
33	LEP total
34	BE
35	ESL
36	Sheltered
37	DEN
38	Not Served
39	LEP SPED
40	BE not LEP
41	LEP exit
42	At Risk
43	Economically Disadvantaged
44	Special Education
45	TAG
	Teacher Information:
46	Total number teachers
47	White teachers
48	African teachers
49	Hispanic teachers
50	American teachers
51	Asian teachers
52	Hawaiian teachers
53	Multi-racial teachers
54	Total Female teachers
55	Total Male teachers
56	SPED teachers
57	Counselors
58	% teachers 0-3 years experience
59	% teachers with 11+ years experience
	Achievement information:
60	School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) for this school year
61	Percentage of students approaching standards in STARR
62	Percentage of students meeting standards in STARR
63	Percentage of students mastering standards in STARR
	Expenditures by Object (Objects 6100-6600) - Data from PEIMS Standard Financial Reports
64	Total Expenditures all funds per student
65	Operating-Payroll all funds per student
66	Other Operating all funds per student
67	Non-Operating(Equipt/Supplies) all funds per student
	Expenditures by Function (Objects 6100-6400 Only)
68	Total Operating Expenditures all funds per student
69	Instruction (11,95) * all funds per student
70	Instructional Res/Media (12) * all funds per student
71	Curriculum/Staff Develop (13) * all funds per student
72	Instructional Leadership (21) * all funds per student
73	School Leadership (23) * all funds per student
74	Guidance/Counseling Svcs (31) * all funds per student
75	Social Work Services (32) * all funds per student
76	Health Services (33) * all funds per student
77	Food (35) ** all funds per student
78	Extracurricular (36) * all funds per student
79	Plant Maint/Operation (51) * ** all funds per student
80	Security/Monitoring (52) * ** all funds per student
81	Data Processing Svcs (53)* ** all funds per student
	Program expenditures by Program (Objects 6100-6400 only)
82	Total Operating Expenditures all funds per student
83	Regular all funds per student
84	Gifted & Talented all funds per student
85	Career & Technical all funds per student
86	Students with Disabilities all funds per student
87	Accelerated Education all funds per student
88	Bilingual all funds per student
89	Nondisc Alted-AEP Basic Serv all funds per student
90	Disc Alted-DAEP Basic Serv all funds per student
91	Disc Alted-DAEP Supplemental all funds per student
92	T1 A Schoolwide-St Comp >=40% all funds per student
93	Athletic Programming all funds per student
94	High School Allotment all funds per student
95	Prekindergarten all funds per student

The above 95 data items come from the Dallas ISD Data Portal (items 2-63, except for item #22 from 2015 Bond Data, but hopefully more current enrollment capacity data for each school is possible) and from the PEIMS Standard Financial Reports maintained by TEA (items 64-95).

This data is freely available online on each school, but not now in this spreadsheet format allowing comparisons. This format with a row dedicated to each school and 95 data items in the columns makes it very easy to compare equity between schools.  It saves hundreds of hours of work.  That required work in fact keeps the equity comparisons hidden from the public. 

The possible inequalities between the schools are not easily transparent, not easily visible.

The general concept of the School Equity Spreadsheet has been approved unanimously at a meeting of about 70 NAACP members and a meeting of the Our Community Our Schools Coalition.  Other groups concerned about equity in DISD schools are being approached and are asked to join in this effort, and/or provide ideas and direction for this effort to expose the equity or inequity between Dallas schools.

The effort to make this information visible is much bigger than any of us.  Ideas are welcome at bbetzen@aol.com.   This data must be made public before Dallas ISD considers a 13 cent tax increase in a Tax Ratification Election. 

What other variables should be added to this list of 95?

This open records request was submitted to Dallas ISD on 4-9-18.  A more detailed listing of the variables was requested.  This list will be submitted on 4-16-18.  Suggestions for improvement are valued!

Since this was submitted it was suggested that trustee district # be added as well as if the school is north or south of the Trinity on the west side of Downtown Dallas, or I-30 on the east side.