School Equity Spreadsheet for Dallas ISD

A spreadsheet with 228 rows for 228 Dallas ISD schools, with 90+ columns of student, teacher, achievement, and financial data by student, shows the potential for equity issues to be exposed quickly! 

Such a well designed School Equity Spreadsheet will allow anyone to explore instantly any of these 90+ variables and the relationships between them in any single school, or in any sub-grouping of the 228 Dallas ISD schools.  Here is a first detailed draft of suggested variables being requested from the Legal Services, Public Information Request Division in Dallas ISD for this spreadsheet:
(To see the second draft adding 5 variables based on feedback from this first draft for a new total of 95 variables, go to http://billbetzen.blogspot.com/2018/04/disd-school-equity-spreadsheet-design.html)

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
	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	Special Education
43	TAG
44	Economically Disadvantaged
	Teacher Information
45	Total number teachers
46	White teachers
47	African teachers
48	Hispanic teachers
49	American teachers
50	Asian teachers
51	Hawaiian teachers
52	Multi-racial teachers
53	Total Female teachers
54	Total Male teachers
	Achievement information:
55	School Effectiveness Indices for this school year
56	Percentage of students approaching standards in STARR
57	Percentage of students meeting standards in STARR
58	Percentage of students mastering standards in STARR
	Expenditures by Object (Objects 6100-6600) - Data from PEIMS Standard Financial Reports
59	Total Expenditures all funds per student
60	Operating-Payroll all funds per student
61	Other Operating all funds per student
62	Non-Operating(Equipt/Supplies) all funds per student
	Expenditures by Function (Objects 6100-6400 Only)
63	Total Operating Expenditures all funds per student
64	Instruction (11,95) * all funds per student
65	Instructional Res/Media (12) * all funds per student
66	Curriculum/Staff Develop (13) * all funds per student
67	Instructional Leadership (21) * all funds per student
68	School Leadership (23) * all funds per student
69	Guidance/Counseling Svcs (31) * all funds per student
70	Social Work Services (32) * all funds per student
71	Health Services (33) * all funds per student
72	Food (35) ** all funds per student
73	Extracurricular (36) * all funds per student
74	Plant Maint/Operation (51) * ** all funds per student
75	Security/Monitoring (52) * ** all funds per student
76	Data Processing Svcs (53)* ** all funds per student
	Program expenditures by Program (Objects 6100-6400 only)
77	Total Operating Expenditures all funds per student
78	Regular all funds per student
79	Gifted & Talented all funds per student
80	Career & Technical all funds per student
81	Students with Disabilities all funds per student
82	Accelerated Education all funds per student
83	Bilingual all funds per student
84	Nondisc Alted-AEP Basic Serv all funds per student
85	Disc Alted-DAEP Basic Serv all funds per student
86	Disc Alted-DAEP Supplemental all funds per student
87	T1 A Schoolwide-St Comp >=40% all funds per student
88	Athletic Programming all funds per student
89	High School Allotment all funds per student
90	Prekindergarten all funds per student

The above 90 data items come from the Dallas ISD Data Portal (items 2-58) and from the PEIMS Standard Financial Reports maintained by TEA (items 59-90).

Yes, this data is freely available on every school, but not in this spreadsheet format which will make it very easy to compare equity and save hundreds of hours of work which de facto keep this data and the equity comparisons from being transparent.

Full Community support is needed to demand the release of this full information in this format. The Dallas NAACP at their 4-3-18 meeting voted to support the release of this data in this format.  The 70 or more members present voted unanimously to support this open records request to become a critical step in the work toward verifying, securing, and maintaining equity in Dallas ISD for all students.


Today, 4-10-18, all members present at the monthly Our Community Our Schools meeting voted to support this open records request.

Other organizations dedicated to equity among all students in DISD are also being approached. They include LULAC, CASE (Coalition for an Accountable System of Education), both Dallas teacher organizations, NEA and AFT, the Dallas League of Women Voters, and others. The members contacted to date have all voiced support for this open records request, but a formal vote at a membership meeting has only been done by the Dallas NAACP and Our Community Our Schools.

The goal is for as many education advocates and organizations as possible to support this open records request, know what the battle is for, and understand what to expect with this new level of transparency.

Some DISD Board Members have been contacted about this request and the support for it is universal so far. They can speak for themselves.

This open records request, submitted 4-9-18, is a significant step toward potentially the highest level of transparency related to the nuances of equity in DISD History. The above specific list of 90 variables will be submitted on 4-16-18 to the DISD Legal Services, Public Information Request Division.

Again, while this open records request deals with data that is public in a multitude of separate settings by school, that data has never been available in this single spreadsheet format by school. That simple change will allow schools to be compared by any of these multiple demographic, financial, achievement, or funding variables in the battle toward studying, verifying, achieving, and maintaining equity for every DISD student. This transparency will allow public confidence in Dallas ISD to continue to grow, unless there is a fight against such transparency by Dallas ISD.

It is hoped there will be no problems with fulfilling this request. It is certainly understood that more discussion may be needed. We welcome questions working toward the most accurate information possible.

Once the study of this format for a spreadsheet starts, it is very possible we may find variables that should be added to the spreadsheet for each school. Suggestions are welcomed so that such additions are done up front and not needed later.

Imagine the power of such a spreadsheet in order by the amount of "regular" funding per child allocated in each school.  Given recent history, it is reasonable to expect that schools with the largest amount of "regular" funding per child will be those schools with the lowest percentage of economically disadvantaged students, or ESL students, or other need-based category of students.  Such a pattern lessens the reality of need-based funds being truly supplementary. That is, they are no longer extra funds in addition to the equal allocation of  "regular" funds should be received by all schools.