What You Need to Get Started

To use this tool, you will need the following information from your district and its schools. More-detailed descriptions of the data you need can be found in the Glossary.

You will also need to download a plug-in viewer to see the graph in the weighted index analysis. (Note: Please download the viewer before starting the data entry; if it is downloaded during the analysis, you may need to re-analyze data.)
Download the Adobe® SVG Viewer plug-in.

NUMBERS OF STUDENTS/ENROLLMENT

• Total student enrollment (school): The total number of students enrolled in each school in the district.
• Total student enrollment (district): The total number of students enrolled in the district (the sum of number of students enrolled in each school in the district).
• Number of students in each special category or need (school): The number of students in each special category or student descriptor to be used in the analysis (including English language learners, special education students, low-income students, etc.) for each school.
  
  Note: include total numbers of English language learners, etc. whether they are enrolled in specific programs or not.
• Number of students in each special category or need (district): The sum of the numbers of students in each special category or student descriptor across all schools in the district.
  
  Note: Include total numbers of English language learners, etc. whether they are enrolled in specific programs or not.

EXPENDITURES

• Total expenditure for school: The actual dollar expenditures the district allocates to each school's budget.
• Total district expenditure on schools: The sum of the district's allocations to all the school budgets in the district.
  
  Note: For this analysis to work, the sum of the figures entered for the "Total expenditure for school" category for all schools in the district must equal the figure entered for "Total district expenditure on schools."
• Expenditures on each special category for each school: Expenditures for each category or special need in each school (e.g., expenditures on special education students in School A, School B, etc.; expenditures on vocational education in School A, School B, etc.).
  
  Note: You don't need these figures if you have the total district expenditures for each special category or need (see next definition).
• Total district expenditures for each special category: Expenditures for each category or special need for the district that is allocated to school budgets (e.g., expenditures on special education students, English language learners, low-income students, etc.): only those that are allocated to school budgets.

SUBGROUPS OF SCHOOLS ANALYSIS

• School subgroup: Subgroups of schools that interest you (high schools, magnet schools, schools with high-poverty populations, schools in a particular section of your city, etc.). You will need to define these subgroups and identify which schools in the district fall into each subgroup.
  
  Note: You must have at least two schools in each subgroup for the subgroups analysis to work.

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