Project Activities
Research question
- How much did pandemic recovery funding contribute to K-12 education, and did it reach local districts with the greatest need? [Not ultimately addressed due to data quality challenges]
- Can information from district fiscal systems be used to reliably examine whether core federal programs pay for similar functions or support local education staffing?
Structured Abstract
Design
This descriptive study collected data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as a nationally representative sample of 400 school districts. States provided information on suballocations of federal education funds to school districts and school districts’ total operational revenues. Sampled school districts provided detailed fiscal data describing revenues, expenditures, and payroll, as well as human resources data describing personnel, for two school years, 2018–19 and 2019–20. Follow-up interviews were conducted in a subset of approximately 50 districts to better understand the provided data and resolve potential discrepancies with other sources, including fiscal data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which was used to validate and complement the study’s primary data collection.
In addition, the study collected fiscal data from state education agencies and governor’s offices in all states describing three federal COVID relief fund programs implemented in 2020 and 2021: the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) program, the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) program, and the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) program.
The study primarily focused on cleaning, standardizing, and summarizing the data in order to assess its suitability for analysis at a national scale.
Key findings
There are no formal findings for this study. However, as noted in the documentation for the restricted-use data file:
- Fiscal data collected directly from study districts often differed from existing national data collections for a multitude of reasons, including how districts accounted for inter-year carryover of federal funds and transfers of funds between programs; how districts processed and submitted data to the state relative to how they did it for the study; and variation in the application of federal, state, or local accounting codes.
- Collecting personnel information was particularly challenging, as little standardization existed between districts with respect to job descriptions and definitions of labor hours (full-time equivalency).
- Fiscal data collection could potentially benefit from having the study team preemptively assist in identifying the most appropriate staffer to respond in each district, provide ongoing technical assistance on how respondents can complete the data request, and conduct validation and follow-up activities as soon as possible after the initial collection.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
A restricted-use file containing de-identified data is available for the purposes of conducting secondary analyses. The first part of the file contains study districts’ revenues and expenditures, including the federal programs from which revenues were received or expenditures were made. The second part of the file contains study districts’ personnel information, including FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) positions by job type, salary and benefits associated with a position, and funds used to pay for those positions.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
