Week of 11/14: "Weekend to Recover"
This week we take a look at illness-driven school disruptions, 2022/23 enrollment announcements from two states, and other trends from around K-12.
This week we look at trends in technology spending across districts with different economic characteristics, 2022/23 enrollments from Florida, Ohio, and Colorado, and more.
1. As we have noted, Burbio has analyzed and categorized ESSER III spending plans from across the U.S.
This week we look at technology spending. Technology categories include mobile devices, smart boards, software, technology infrastructure and security, equipment, tools used in delivering virtual education, connectivity, and more.
For the analysis below we look at tech spending based on the socio-economic class of student populations. We identified 3,063 districts in our ESSER III database that have identified their free and reduced price lunch (FRPL) percentage in the federal NCES database. We divided the districts into quintiles based on the percent of students eligible for free and reduced price meals, and then averaged the percent of planned spending on technology by the districts in each group. The chart below indicates that the lower the percentage of students eligible for FRPL, the higher the percent spent on technology:
2. Nationally we have found just over nine percent of ESSER III planned spending is against technology. Below is a chart with ten of the highest states by percent spent in the category:
3. This week Florida, Ohio, and Colorado each announced enrollment figures for 2022/23. We keep state-level enrollment comparisons on Burbio's School Enrollment Tracker map as they are announced. To date we have compiled announcements from 24 states, with 13 states showing an increase in enrollment since last year and 11 showing a decline. In this week's new states we continue to observe a rise in Pre-K enrollment, although smaller than last year's expansion, and a rise in first grade enrollment, which is consistent with some parents holding their children out of kindergarten in 2020/21.
In Florida public school enrollment rose 1.3% from 2021/22, versus a 1.5% increase the previous year. The yellow bar shows the 2022/23 shift in the chart below and the ones that follow:
In Ohio enrollment declined 0.3% versus a 0.7% increase the previous year. Below are the grade-level and locale trends for the state:
In Ohio all locales fell in enrollment:
Below is Colorado, where enrollment dropped by 0.4% after increasing 0.4% the previous year:
