The School District of Lancaster serves more than 10,000 students, 91% of whom are economically disadvantaged, and 20% of whom are learning English. The district ranks 5th in the state in the percentage of its students who are homeless and 7th among districts serving the largest percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
On Thursday and Friday, Dr. Damaris Rau, superintendent of the School District of Lancaster, one of the petitioners in the case, testified that students in Lancaster have significant needs that the district does not have the resources to effectively meet — and that this makes it difficult for them to prepare for their future.
“Children in poor school districts like the School District of Lancaster and other districts around the commonwealth are not being served appropriately,” Rau said at the start of her testimony. “The funding that we are receiving does not allow them to achieve the standards the state has set forth.”
Rau, an educator with almost 40 years of experience, was motivated to become superintendent in Lancaster six years ago because the students there reminded her of herself when she was a student.
"I didn't speak English when I started in kindergarten,” Rau said. “I was very poor, one of seven children, and I made it because I had the right teachers and I had the right resources. And I know that every single child who gets those same things can make it."
About 500 students in the district are refugees who have been displaced by natural disasters and conflicts, Rau said, including 300 students who moved the district with their families from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
In their opening statements and during cross examination, attorneys for the legislative leaders highlighted Lancaster’s spending per student, without accounting for the substantial additional educational needs of students learning English and students in poverty. In this unadjusted figure for revenue per student, Lancaster is in the top quintile statewide. But Rau said funding comparisons that don’t account for student need are comparing “apples and oranges.”
Compared to other school districts in her county, Rau said, no other district must hire more than 80 English learning teachers -– each with a caseload of between 29 and 40 students -– or serve 500 homeless students. “You can't compare children who live in such economically disadvantaged homes to children who are middle-class and affluent,” Rau said. “The needs are very different.”
Lancaster ranks 274th in spending per student out of 499 districts using the state’s measure for spending relative to student need. The state uses these measures of need to distribute funds, and the state Department of Education recognizes that economically disadvantaged students require more resources to receive a quality education. Lancaster is short $4,510 per student based on a state benchmark for adequate funding adopted by the legislature.
This insufficient level of funding relative to need has consequences for students.
Four reading specialists serve 6,000 elementary students, Rau said, and the district does not have math interventionists at any grade level. More than 80% of students are identified as needing individualized supports these specialists could provide, she said.
Students in Lancaster consistently score below state benchmarks on standardized tests. For example, 49% scored advanced or proficient on the 11th grade Keystone exam in English language arts in 2019—22 percentage points below the state average.
“I know they need to pass that test so that they could be college- and career-ready,” Rau said.
Many Lancaster students, she said, have experienced trauma, violence, or adverse childhood experiences. Guidance counselors and social workers are crucial to address these needs for students to access instruction, Rau said. But the district’s guidance counselors spend much of their time addressing crises and cannot be accessible to all students in need, she said.
Rau said that a majority of students in Lancaster are not leaving school prepared for college and career. "I know that our kids work really hard,” Rau said, “but without the interventions they need, as they get older, it gets harder and harder to meet those standards."
From Lancaster’s class of 2013, 45% of students enrolled in college within a year of graduation. Six years later, Rau said, few from that class who had enrolled in college had gone on to earn college degrees: 16% of economically disadvantaged students, 22% of Black students, 12% of Hispanic students, and 30% of white students.
Rau, who has worked with students in poverty for decades, believes that her students can meet standards for college and career readiness, she said, and her students are motivated to learn.
“But we also know that our students need additional resources to reach those significant targets,” she said.