Running Head: ADA VERSUS ADM

ADA versus ADM
Christina Dickinson
Grand Canyon University: EDA 535
November 8, 2011

ADA Versus ADM Many factors must go into account when distributing funds in schools. Some of the funds must be distributed between administration, teachers and support staff salaries, bus drivers, coaches, and school police to name a few. Once all the funds are distributed throughout the district, then the focus becomes on student allocation. When allocating money for students, the school district needs to take into consideration meal plans for the lower economical students, after school activities, and extra-curricular programs. The question becomes whether or not we allocate funds bases on our students daily attendance or their average daily membership? In order to determine how student funds should be allocated we must understand what average daily attendance (ADA) and average daily membership (ADM) and the differences between the two. It is important to also understand how each of them could be applies to our school districts budget. According to EdSource, average daily attendance is defined as the total number of days of attendance for all students divided by the total number of school days in a given period (2011). There are many aspects to think about when deciding whether ADA will work for our school district. As a school district, we must look into how many students we have to provide funding for throughout the entire district. We also have to know how many days the students will need funding for. The district also needs to determine when to students need to be accounted for so that the funding is accurate. This is normally called a count day. The district would pick one day to count all the students. The number of students enrolled will determine the amount allocated to each student for that school. Average daily membership is defined by EdSource as the number of days a student is in membership (part of the student body) at a school divided by the number of days in the school year. There are many aspects that need to go into consideration when deciding to use ADM as the way to allocate money for students. There must be a method used when counting to decide if a student should counts towards the schools ADM. What this means is how many period a student needs to be enrolled in to count towards the student allocation funds. Another thing that needs to be considered is whether or not the district should allocated money for partial memberships or does the student have to be a full time member. This would be for those students that may have early release because they are on track to graduate early or have enough credits. There are both positives and negatives to each of these two methods that must be looked at when choosing which one is best for the students and the school district. Each method has many positive reasons. ADA is great for larger district with larger student population because these schools receive a larger amount of funding. ADM is good for schools that provide extra programs thought out the day, more classes and opportunities for at risk students, and credit retrieval program. This can increase student numbers which will allocated more funding for the students. With the positives come many negatives. ADA can be extremely difficult for smaller school districts and communities to get the funding needed to support their students. Their student enrolment is must smaller than a bigger school and that means less overall funding. Many feel that the rural schools are at a disadvantage in comparison to urban school who may receive more money because their student population is greater. One of the negative aspects about ADM is that many feel the need to fudge student enrollment numbers so that they can receive more money for the students. School will leave student who have moved, be expelled, or students who are absent on their membership list just to receive that money. Equalizing funding for each school sounds like an easy way to fund the schools. When it comes to money, things are never that easy. There is a lot of things that go into play when determining how much money certain school should receive for their students, pay for staff, programs, and everything else that goes into running a school. For example, urban school would never make ends meet on the budget that a rural school may receive in one year. This is because the urban school is normally going to have a bigger student population. This means a bigger free and reduced meal population, more students who will need special education accommodations, and more programs for at risk students. The rural schools normally have a smaller student population which means that the free or reduced meals numbers will be smaller and the accommodations for the special education students will be smaller. The other part of this is pay for teachers. Teachers that have a small student population should not get paid the same as teachers who have a bigger population. With a bigger population come bigger problems that everyone has to deal with and the pay should be different according to the situations that a teacher is put in. Equalizing funding is something that I do not agree with and feel would not be beneficial to out students success.

When considering economic trends, I would take into account demographics, our local industries, and average salaries of that particular economic area. All of this pertains to the funding education will receive. If you have a large lower economic area, many families could be in government housing, or receiving government support, therefore not spending money into the local economy. The lack of stimulus comes back through taxes, and ultimately effects the amount of funding a school district may receive from the state. If your local demographic is high, and people live in more upscale areas, they usually make more money, and are spending in the local community. Therefore they do stimulate the local economy. This is important to know for preparing a budget for your schools in the district. If your district is showing an economic up turn, and jobs are on the rise, then you can expect more people to move in to your local community. It is exactly the opposite if people are being laid off, industry is shutting down, and the economy is going into the gutter.