SECTION 203.5. Definition of Terms and Data Elements

(a) Average daily attendance. The average daily attendance (ADA) for the diseconomies of scale component shall be that reported on the "Principal's Semester Report of Student Attendance and Contact Hours" for the relevant school year, either 1991-1992 or 1992-1993. The commissioner of education shall adjust the ADA of those districts which do not offer all grades to reflect the number of students transferred out of the district to attend other districts.

(b) Competitive beginning average annual salary. The competitive beginning average annual salary for a district was the average annual salary of beginning instructional personnel in other districts with which the district competes. Instructional staff was defined as teachers, nurses, and librarians. The role identification reported on the Public Information Management System (PEIMS) data submission for the 1989-1990 school year was used to determine if an individual was assigned as instructional staff. The assignment must have been the major assignment of the individual as determined by days employed and percent of day assigned. If the role identification was equal to 25, 29, 13, or 22 then the individual was categorized as instructional staff. To compute the competitive beginning average annual salary, the salaries and full-time equivalencies of instructional staff with zero years of experience was aggregated for all the districts in counties contiguous to the district's county and the other districts in the district's county. The average salary was then computed as the aggregate salaries divided by the aggregate full-time equivalencies. The source was the fall PEIMS data submission for the 1989-1990 school year.

(c) County population. The estimate of 1990 county population from the Texas Department of Health, dated May 1987, was used.

(d) District type. The district types were those determined by the Texas Education Agency for the 1989-1990 school year. An adjustment is made for districts which are categorized as independent towns or rural. All other districts do not receive a district type adjustment. A district categorized as an independent town was the largest school district in a county with a population between 25,000 to 100,000, or any other district in that county with an average daily attendance at least 75% of the largest district's. Furthermore, the district must not have qualified for categorization as a major suburban district or an other central city suburban district as defined by the Texas Education Agency. Districts categorized as rural are those school districts which either had a student count of between 300 and 743 and a growth rate of less than 20%, or that had a student count of less than 300.

(e) Percent low income. This value was derived by dividing the best six-months average of students claiming free and reduced lunches under the National School Lunch Program (NSL) for the 1988-1989 school year by the average daily attendance in the district for the 1989-1990 school year, and multiplying the result by 100.

(f) Size of district. This value for the cost component is the average daily attendance in the district for the 1989-1990 school year as reported on the "Superintendent's Report of Pupil Attendance and Contact Hours."

Source Note: The provisions of this §203.5 adopted to be effective January 25, 1991, 16 TexReg 172.