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# R U R A L R E A L I T Y
A look into New York State's rural schools
Facebook: NY State Center for Rural Schools | Twitter: @NYRuralSchools
This is the compilation of a series of postings to help inform discussion and
analysis of issues facing New York State’s small and rural schools. Each figure,
table or map alone signals a particular characteristic, but together they will paint
a complicated portrait of the state of NY’s rural school districts in 2019. We
present this data impartially as a descriptive analysis of school districts in New
York State. The first step in deciding what to do is to understand where we have
been.
E N R O L L M E N T A N D D E M O G R A P H I C S
E N R O L L M E N T
Here we see an increase in the
number of NY’s smallest school
districts. We now have 19
districts with fewer than 100
students K-12, and 108 districts
between 100 and 500.
Hence, the number of districts
with fewer than 500 students has
increased from 107 to 127 over
the last decade. Likewise, the
number of districts with fewer
than 1000 students has
increased from 235 to 270.
Here, we map (see below)
where these districts are in the
state (black and blue outlines)
as well as their racial and
poverty demographics (see
table). But, we also represent
the change in District
enrollment over the past
decade.
This allows us to categorize
districts as either stable in their
enrollment (yellow) over the last
10 years, gaining enrollment
(green), or losing enrollment.
This can be broken into loss
(pink) and severe Loss (red) of
enrollment. Note the clustering
pattern of enrollment-growth
districts, the small districts, and
the severe-loss districts. The first
step in deciding what to do is to
understand where we have been.
M I N O R I T Y A N D E C O N O M I C A L L Y
D I S A D V A N T A G E D P O P U L A T I O N S
P O P U L A T I O N L O S S
To sum, we see growing districts to have predominately poor and minority enrollments. In districts with
severe population loss, we see them to be in Upstate, predominantly white, and with varying levels of
economic disadvantage.
We prepared a video for you to
watch and learn how to use the
Flows Mapper:
https://www.facebook.com/nyrurals
chools/videos/2597226473638299/
Once you watch, try it out for
yourself and see what you can
learn about where people are
moving from and moving to:
https://flowsmapper.geo.census.go
v/map.html
The previous map displayed a large
amount of population loss. Where are
people moving? Here, we extend the
story and introduce a very useful and
informative tool built by the United
States Census Bureau. It is called the
“Flows Mapper” and can be used by
anyone who is curious about where
people in your county are moving to and
where people are moving from. Many of
you have heard John Sipple speak
about the importance of local context
beyond your district boundary, this tool
will do this.
Here, we offer a look at the % of Minority
Students in districts that have gained
enrollment or experienced severe loss of
enrollment.
The first thing you will notice is the obvious
difference in the racial makeup of school
districts upstate (generally less than 10%
minority students) vs. downstate (generally
greater than 27%).
Amongst the districts that experienced
Severe Loss of Enrollment, these are
mainly upstate and predominantly with
fewer than 10% minority students.
Amongst the districts that Gained
Enrollment, with the exception of 10
districts upstate, the majority are down
state and also have high minority
enrollments (>52%).
Second, we present a similar map but this
time highlighting the % Economically
Disadvantaged in districts.
The overarching impression with this map
is the preponderance of very high levels
(>58%) of economic disadvantage across
the rural areas of the state (dark blue).
You can see the rough patterns of
suburban wealth around the cities of
Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany
with levels of disadvantage between 0 and
41%.
Amongst the districts with severe loss,
there is an almost random variation of
economic disadvantage.
Again, we see in districts with enrollment
gain having very high levels of poverty
downstate.
E X P L O R I N G I N D I V I D U A L D I S T R I C T S
Now, we're putting the data in your hands by providing some tools that allow
you to focus in on your individual school district.
This link will take you to a page with two tools. The first tool allows you to
select one variable and compare that variable across multiple school districts.
The second tool allows you to select one school district and take a look at
multiple variables. What does your school district show?
https://www.nyeducationdata.org/20-year-trend-tools
# R U R A L R E A L I T Y
W E A L T H A N D E X P E N D I T U R E S
Here, we present a tool that
allows you to take a look at some
aspects of funding across the
state and in your individual
district. We offer two maps: one
showing the Combined Wealth
Ratio (CWR) of districts and the
other showing Expenditure Per
Pupil (EPP). Combined Wealth
Ratio is calculated by the state to
determine how much a local
community will be able to fund a
school.
S T U D E N T S & T E A C H E R S
CWR is calculated into the state’s funding formula as a way to equalize the funding of districts.
Districts with a lower CWR are limited in their means to fully fund a district, so state aid is greater in
order to equalize spending with wealthier districts who have the means to fund schools without as
much state aid. This is all part of an attempt to equalize EPP. However, as is seen in the map, EPP is
not equal across the state. There are a few variables that are important for explaining the variance
across EPP, and we included those as adjustments you can make to the map.
To access the map and find a tutorial video, explore this link:
https://www.nyeducationdata.org/communitywealth?
fbclid=IwAR3gSvj00IZYzdpin1MoF0mGH3Iy6ZBW1I5RtcRuEFh8iJLQFBVm7K6lH8s
*All public school districts in NYS, excluding NYC
The previous maps
explored school funding.
Now, we take a look into
school climate. New York
States boasts one of the
lowest student/teacher
ratios nationally, but how
does it differ based on
locale type?
S C H O O L S A F E T Y &
E D U C A T I O N A L C L I M A T E
Because we just picked a few variables to display in our table, we want to give you the
opportunity to explore the SSEC data yourself.
Here is the link to a page that gives a more in-depth description of what the SSEC data
does and what it is used for: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/ssae/schoolsafety/vadir/
And here is the link to the data reports for all schools:
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/school_safety/school_safety_data_reporting.html
Here, we take a look into School
Safety and the Educational Climate
(SSEC) incident data from the 2017-
18 school year. This data combines
the Dignity for All Students Act
(DASA) and Violent or Disruptive
Incident Reporting (VADIR) incident
reports. This data is reported by all
NYS schools; however, in this table,
we exclude NYC schools, charter
schools, and Pre-K only schools.
This table includes the highest incidence variables selected from the SSEC. The mean
number of incidents per pupil are compared across the Need/Resource Capacity
categories. These can be interpreted as the number of incidents per 1000 students. For
example, considering discrimination and bullying (no cyber) there are 7 incidents for every
1000 students in Low Need schools and 13 incidents for every 1000 students in Rural
High Need schools.
# R U R A L R E A L I T Y