Teacher Student ratios, 2009
Our map of the week provides some insight on one factor that influences the high cost of education in Vermont and our relatively high educational test scores. This map illustrates the Student-Teacher Ratio for 2009. Interestingly it is not just the rural Supervisory Unions that have low student-teacher ratios. The Hartford District has the third lowest student-teacher ratio with 8.9 students for every full time teacher with Montpelier District coming in at 9.9 students per teacher. Bennington and Brattleboro areas also have relatively low ratios. Supervisory Unions in Chittenden County have some of the highest ratios along with Lamoille South Supervisory Union. Nationally the figure is 15.5 students per teacher. The high – low range among the states for the most recent comparative year is Utah at 22.4 and Vermont at 11.3 students per teacher.
Download a PDF of the Teacher Student Ratios 2009 map
The following are web sites that have useful comparative statistics. For Vermont , these two sites are very useful: http://www.education.vermont.gov/new/html/maindata.html and http://www.uvm.edu/crs/?Page=resources/index.html&SM=resources/resourcessubmenu.html. For National state-by-state comparisons visit: http://www.statemaster.com/cat/edu-education
Map prepared by David Healy, Stone Environmental Inc., Montpelier VT 05602, 802.229.1870, dhealy@stone-env.com.
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Ah, the power of GIS. I love it when someone takes data like this and puts it on a map. If it’s done right, it can help you make a lot of sense out of a lot of numbers. I take it this is a map you commissioned? What data source was used? I’m guessing the 2010 FTE Report on the VT DOE site, right? I see there are some blanks on there. It looks like the Barre Town District is lumped in with the Barre City stuff and Shelburne is lumped in with Chittenden South. Grotton is Blue Mountain Supervisory which is an 11.0 according to the VT DOE data.
Keep up with the maps. Awesome stuff.
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Digger, this newsletter always has the information I love, this is wonderful to have. Thank you.
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The towns of Fairlee, West Fairlee and Vershire are part of the interstate Rivendell SU, and not, as shown on the map, as part of the Orange East SU. How many other errors are contained in the data from which this map was constructed?
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This information drives a lot of questions? We know how the dollars relate to the student-teacher ratio. It’s expensive! What’s the relationship between the quality of education and the student-teacher ratio? When the research was mapped how was a “teacher” defined? Special education programs hire “teachers” but they rarely work with children. They create plans and hire a para-professional to implement the plan. Is the para-professional a teacher in mapping the ratio? Is the “teacher” defined as any adult hired to work in the schools; nurses, administrators, aides, cooks, janitors, secretaries etc. ? I always wonder when people start crunching numbers and mining data what the driving questions are that they are collecting.