Budget figures used in this analysis represent the spending plans developed by school boards for the 1994-95 school year, and approved in the 1994 school election or modified through subsequent appeals. This number can be lower than the overall passing rates reported by some districts. Moreover, a student who misses the first administration of an EWT section as well as the makeup test, brings the passing rate down just as if he had failed. In Upper Saddle River, for example, one student did not take one section of the test. That dropped the score to 98.9 percent even though all students who took the test passed.
Schools often raise their passing rates as students are retested.
Estimated graduation rates were derived by dividing the number of students who entered the ninth grade in September 1990 by the number of 1994 high school graduates. In fact, some graduation rates calculated by this method exceed 100 percent, due to students entering districts after ninth grade. Statistics on teacher salaries, experience, and education were calculated for full-time classroom teachers. They do not include teachers who double as administrators, nor do they include speech therapists, librarians, and the like. The student-administrator ratio is calculated only for superintendents, assistant superintendents, school business administrators, principals, and assistant principals.