1. In the coming weeks Burbio is expanding our dataset of school board meeting documentation, and we expect to have over 50 percent coverage of the U.S. K-12 student population by midway through Q2. At this point we want to highlight additional results of our survey of just over 400 district meetings covering over 24% of U.S. students, including a minimum of three districts from each state other than Hawaii and the District of Columbia. The results below are from each district's most recent meeting.
Our first chart looks at terms regarding staff transitions, shortages, and school closures. Retirement is mentioned the most frequently:
The following chart shows the wide variety and frequency of training and development initiatives being discussed at School Board meetings:
In last week's blog post we noted the variety and frequency of times school boards discuss curriculum. This week we note the frequency of references to arts and extracurricular activities:
In future weeks we will be publishing more charts and as noted we will be expanding the dataset.
2. This week we also take a look at 2022/23 enrollments in two states, Wisconsin and Oregon. A full list of reported states to date can be found on Burbio's Enrollment Tracker.
First up is Wisconsin, which saw enrollment decline 0.8% versus 2021/22. Below are the year-over-year comparisons by locale, with the most recent comparison in yellow. Note all locales decline with the highest percentage in cities:
Next up is grade-level changes. Last year's big jump in Pre-K (in red) did not translate to higher kindergarten enrollment this year (in yellow).
In Oregon enrollment declined just 0.1% after falling 1.4% the previous year. Below are the shifts by locale. City districts were the only type that declined:
At the grade level Oregon had an increase in three of the four high school grades (in yellow) which we don't often see: