Comparing Madison, Boston & Long Beach Public Schools: Student/Teacher Ratio

Madison Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham recently cited the Boston and Long Beach Schools for "narrowing their achievement gap" during a July, 2013 "What Will be Different This Time" presentation to the Madison Rotary Club.

As time permits, I intend to post comparisons between the Districts, starting today.

Student / Teacher Ratio



Per Student Annual Spending



Boston Schools' budget information was, by far the easiest to find. Total spending is mentioned prominently, rather than buried in a mountain of numbers.

Finally, after I noticed that Madison's student / teacher ratio is significantly lower than Boston, Long Beach and the Badger state average, I took a look at the Wisconsin DPI website to see how staffing has changed over the past few years. Madison's licensed staff grew from 2,273 in 2007-2008 to 2,492 in 2011-2012.

What are the student achievement benefits of Madison's very low ratio?

Related: Madison Schools' 2013-2014 budget includes a 4.5% property tax increase after 9% two years ago.

"Plenty of resources" and "the Madison School District has the resources to close the achievement gap".

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 15, 2013 4:13 AM
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