Analysis of the Educational Personnel System: VI. Staffing Patterns in U. S. Local Public Schools.

The aggregate measures of teaching staff per pupil or total educational staff per pupil can conceal substantial differences in the mix of educational professionals utilized and may yield erroneous conclusions about gaps in the relative educational service levels among local public schools. This study of staffing patterns in U. S. local schools, using unpublished data from a staff survey of local schools conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics in 1970, reveals that, in general, elementary schools have more nonprofessional health staff per teaching staff and less services supporting instructional staff per teaching staff than secondary schools do. Moreover, both elementary and secondary schools in large cities have more nonprofessional staff per teaching staff and more services supporting instructional staff per teaching staff than schools do in metropolitan areas surrounding large cities and in all other areas. This analysis of local school staffing mixes indicates substantial differences in staffing patterns by location, size, and economic status of the school. These differences reinforce the hypothesis that use of aggregate pupil/teaching staffing ratios has been overemphasized and could produce inaccurate assessments of the quantity and quality of educational services by a specific school. (HMD)