District Improvement Plans

Matrice Raven

 

District Improvement Plan

 

Austin and NISD Comparison

 

April 13, 2014

 

Looking at both Austin ISD and Northwest ISD, there are many noticeable comparisons. With the profiles of the districts being quite different, yet we are similar in many ways. Northwest is one of the largest district in the state, land wise, not necessarily pupil wise. The land covers many counties. We are now in the process of seeing the rapid growth, where demographers are predicting that in about 20 years, NISD will have grown from 18, 000 students to 80, 000. Realizing Austin ISD does not fit the same profile in that aspect, we are similar In ways of our diversity in student populations.

 

One of the most notable things that stick out immediately when looking at both district’s improvement plan is the huge difference in federal funding. Most of NISD’s funding comes from local, intermediate sources. Federal resources were around 48 million, compared to over 100 million in Austin ISD. There was huge difference in the local. Austin was around 30 million local and NISD main revenue source was local and intermediate coming in around 111 million. Looking at the various programs impacted by this would be the ones that are all familiar to us like Special Education services and the Title programs. They are very extensive in Austin and not so much in our district. Not that one profile or district is better than the other, there is a distinct difference in the student populations, both having it’s own variation of diversity.

 

Why such a discrepancy is worth exploring. There is a definite flip in resources allotted from state and federal funding. Many of the programs listed in Austin’s Improvement plan are federal programs and are sustained by federal funding. Special education resources, various Title programs like Title ! are seemingly how the district’s budget is formed. Various goal outcomes are tied to the federal funding allotted to the programs that are in place and unique to Austin. In NISD, there are local funding sources that increase the bottom line number in local and intermediate funding. Of course there are federal programs in NISD, but it is not solely operating under federal funding. For example, there is only one Title 1 secondary campus in the district. It is obvious that the land square miles covered in the district helps with local funding. NISD is not a property rich district and does not send millions back to the state and many of the funds are kept. However, it is a unique difference in the funding and goals of the two districts.