Dive Brief:
- School Market Research Institute and Market Data Retrieval surveyed 200 secretaries in K-12 schools across the United States this fall, finding school funding and student performance on standardized tests topped the list of biggest issues facing school administrators, with 54% and 31% of respondents listing those issues respectively.
- According to the survey, 45% of respondents expect their schools will spend the same amount as last year on printed instructional materials (with 34% reporting they’d spend less), while 56% say they expect to spend somewhat or much more on digital instructional materials.
- Virtually all respondents said their schools were either somewhat (45%) or very (54%) technology-ready, and 88% reported at least one computer with internet access is available in every classroom.
Dive Insight:
Secretaries offer an important window into the workings of school offices and can offer similar perspectives as administrators when it comes to spending and challenges. It is not surprising that school funding and assessments top the list of challenges. Assessment continues to be the primary accountability metric for schools, and funding has still not recovered from the Great Recession.
A national survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 31 states distributed less per-student in the 2013-14 school year than in the 2007-08 school year. While some states allocated more money to schools at the local level, the national average still shows a decline, and individual schools have to figure out how to provide critical services with shrinking funds. In cities, this decline in per-student dollars can be compounded by the loss of students to neighborhood charter schools.
