August 2 -- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) invites public comments to OMB by September 1, 2021 regarding the Common Core of Data (CCD) School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) 2021-2023.
There is a significant demand for finance data at the school level. Policymakers, researchers, and the public have long voiced concerns about the equitable distribution of school funding within and across school districts. School-level finance data have been identified as crucial to measuring how school-level education resources are distributed across and within school districts and examining the funding distributions across population characteristics (e.g. race/ethnicity make-up, poverty level, urban/rural, etc.) of those schools and districts.
Education expenditure data are now available at the school level through the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS). The School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) data collection is conducted annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
In March 2021, NCES released a report entitled Highlights of School-Level Finance Data: Selected Findings from the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) School Years 2015-16 (FY 16) and 2016-17 (FY 17) (NCES 2021-305). The report focuses on (1) the completeness and comparability of SLFS data and (2) how the SLFS can be utilized to evaluate differences in resource allocation (as measured by school-level expenditures) across schools, school districts, and states.
The SLFS is complemented by the F-33 -- an annual collection of school, district-level finance data, including data on local revenues by source and state, federal revenues by program, expenditures by function and object, debt, and school district cash and investments (assets). NPEFS is another comprehensive NCES collection of education finance data used to report actual revenues and expenditures made by public school systems for elementary-secondary education. The key distinction between the three surveys is that NPEFS collects school finance data at the state level, F-33 at a school district level, and SLFS at a school level.
NCES School Fiscal Reports webpage:
https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pub_sfr_report.asp
SLFS 2021-2023 submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202104-1850-007 Click on IC List for survey forms, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation
FR notice inviting public comment to OMB:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/08/02/2021-16359/agency-information-collection-activities-submission-to-the-office-of-management-and-budget-for
Point of contact: Carrie Clarady, NCES (202) 245-6347 Carrie.Clarady@ed.gov
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806