A is for Average: footnotes from Chapter 2

11) Here’s the link to the US News & World Report data on Palo Alto Unified. And here’s the corresponding link to the data for Palo Alto.

12) Here’s the link to the Ed Data page with Beverly Hills Unified. And here’s the corresponding link for Compton Unified.

13) Here’s the link to the Palo Alto Daily Post article about the decision to drop Honors Biology. It was a very contentious decision.

14) The 2019–2020 school year was chosen because it is the most recent year for which both per-pupil funding data and NAEP scores both exist, and because it provides a snapshot just before COVID-19 hit.

15) Here’s the link to a google spreadsheet showing the analysis when factoring in cost of living (PPP = purchasing power parity, which factors in the cost of living in a state relative to the United States overall). You’ll want the last tab on the right, titled “NAEP 8th grade reading (spending data with COL).”

16) Here’s the link to the spreadsheet showing the inflation-adjusted budget numbers I used in my analysis. This spreadsheet is view-only, but you can download a copy for yourself if you want to play with the numbers.

17) The same spreadsheet from (15) above has all the cost-of-living numbers in it, on the “NAEP 8th grade reading (spending data with COL)” tab. Cell B59 has the link to the cost-of-living data, with detailed instructions for how to grab it (it takes a little more work than usual.)

18) Here’s the link to the article from the Chronicle about the chakra healer that the school district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on. It will blow your mind. It’s so ridiculous it’s almost funny, except that it’s an appalling waste of taxpayer money in a district where only 32% of Hispanic kids can read at grade level. So, it isn’t actually funny, unfortunately.