More on Achievement and Arlington’s Higher K-12 Costs
Yesterday, we noted the overall SAT scores of students in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) was 23 points higher than the scores of students in the Arlington Public Schools (APS) despite APS spending over $5,100 more per student. With its 18,000 students, the Arlington school district uses over $93 million more to achieve less on the SAT exam.
School Matters is a service of Standard & Poor’s (one of the rating agencies that provides Arlington County with a Triple A bond rating) that among other things provides information and analysis for “Americans about how schools and school districts are performing and help them understand the complex relationships between achievement and” spending on public education. One feature of their website is the ability to compare as many as five school districts simultaneously.
Given the $5,105 disparity in per-student spending between the two school districts, we asked School Matters to compare APS and FCPS. First, we noted that FCPS students scored better in 2005 on state tests (86.3 vs. 81.4 in reading proficiency and 88.5 vs. 84.4 in math proficiency). All subgroups of FCPS students scored better than their APS cohorts except for white students. That includes economically disadvantaged students and ESL students. In addition, for the four categories of college preparation (ACT, SAT, PSAT, and AP scores of 3 or above), FCPS students achieved greater results than their APS cohorts.
Not surprisingly, School Matters reports that FCPS has both a significantly higher Return on Spending Index © and a significantly lower Performance Cost Index © than does APS. Sure sounds as if Arlington’s taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth.