School Expenditures by Spending Category with Enrollment and Performance Data

School-level per pupil expenditures by major functional categories and funding sources, starting from fiscal year 2019. The dataset also includes school-level enrollment, demographic indicators, teacher salary and staffing data, and MCAS performance metrics. It is published by the Massachusetts educationtocareer.data.mass.gov platform and is part of a suite of three related finance datasets.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between per pupil spending (IND_VALUE) and student performance (e.g., 'ELA Grades 3-8 % Meets Exceeds') across different school years (SY).
• Compare staffing levels (e.g., 'Teacher FTE', 'Paraprofessional FTE') and average teacher salary across school districts (DIST_NAME) and demographic groups (e.g., 'Low-Income % Headcount').
• Track changes in expenditure categories (IND_CAT, IND_SUBCAT) and funding sources over multiple academic years (SY) for a specific school (ORG_NAME).

Strengths

• Data integrates financial, demographic, staffing, and performance indicators at the school level, enabling multifaceted analysis.
• The dataset is part of a structured reporting system linked to a public School Finance Dashboard, suggesting formal data collection processes.
• Includes data from fiscal year 2019 onward, providing a multi-year perspective on school finances.

Limitations

• Row count and total data size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.
• The description notes changes in the definition of economic disadvantage indicators over time, which could affect longitudinal consistency.
• Metadata for license, author, and precise update frequency is not provided in the input.

Provenance

Source

educationtocareer.data.mass.gov (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education - DESE)

Collection Method

Reported by school districts, with some costs attributed to schools on a per pupil basis.

Time Range

Starting with fiscal year 2019.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-03 22:30:07; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely the state of Massachusetts, USA, based on the organization and platform tags.