Funding at-risk compensatory programs: An urban high school case study

Abstract

A Texas urban high school with a 98 percent minority student enrollment was selected to conduct a micro-finance analysis on site-based at-risk per pupil costs. A process was developed to define site-based state compensatory education (SCE) and to account for all students receiving direct and indirect state compensatory education services. Program costs data were analyzed to develop a relationship between full-time equivalent (FTE) state categorical program costs and regular education program costs. At-risk student background characteristics were defined using a parent home survey, conducted with a sample of twenty at-risk students and twenty regular education students. The data revealed that 68 percent of the students exhibited one or more of the state-defined at-risk variables; the highest program costs produced the highest achievement: and based on student backgroud characteristics, all of the students, including regular funded students, were at risk.