Data sources are arranged in alphabetical order by the abbreviations used in the Item Definitions section.

CPTD, Self Report: The Comptroller's Property Tax Division 1996 Self Report. This report contains local tax roll assessed values for property, levy amounts, and tax rate information for all school districts with taxable property. Item 62; Exhibit 21.

CPTD, Study: The Comptroller's Property Tax Division 1996 Property Value Study, July 1, 1997. This study provides local tax roll property values as of January 1, 1996 for each district by category of land use. The comptroller's reevaluated values by category of land use are also provided. Items 61, 62; Exhibit 20 and Exhibit 21.

Division of Performance Reporting: A TEA division that is responsible for producing the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports and for determining the accountability ratings for schools and school districts each year. Computer programs analyze the TAAS results, dropout rates, and attendance rates that are published in the AEIS in order to determine the accountability rating. See the TEA publication 1997 Accountability Manual: The 1997 Accountability Rating System for Texas Public Schools and School Districts. Accountability ratings in this publication were current as of November 1, 1997. Item 1; Exhibit 13, Exhibit 14, and Exhibit A.

Financial Audit Report: TEA data files created from reports submitted to the TEA by auditors hired by local districts. The December 1996 reports used in this edition reflect district audited financial data from the 1995-96 school year. In addition to fund balance information, these reports provide total outstanding debt for bonds and loans, delinquent tax information, and revenue and expenditure amounts. School-level information is not provided. Items 69, 70.

Foundation Master: A TEA data source that contains detailed information about state funding amounts and calculations for each entity receiving state dollars under the Foundation School Program. Item 63.

Organization Master Files: TEA data files containing basic organizational attributes about schools and school districts, including name and identification number, county name and number, Education Service Center region, State Board of Education district, type of district (regular FSP, special statutory, state-administered, or charter), and mailing address. Items 2, 3; Exhibits 1, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 3, Exhibit B, and Exhibit E.

PEIMS: Information in this document from the Public Education Information Management System was reported either in the spring (submission 3) of the 1995-96 year, or in the fall (submission 1) of the 1996-97 year. In submission 3 districts reported yearlong student information, due to the agency by June of 1996. In submission 1 districts reported data as of October 25, 1996. The budgeted financial data reported at that time was for the entire 1996-97 school year. All record types described below were received in submission 1 of school year 1996-97 with the exception of record type 400, which is from submission 3 of school year 1995-96. For more information about the PEIMS reporting requirements see the 1996-97 Public Education Information Management System Data Standards.

030: Budget Amounts: Amounts budgeted by the district, or campus if appropriate, reported by fund, function, object, and in some cases by program intent. Items 64-68, 70-87; Exhibit 20, Exhibit 22, Exhibit 23, Exhibit 24, and Exhibit C.

040: Staff Basic Information: Information about each employee's sex, ethnicity, years of experience, and post-secondary degree. Items 43, 47-49, 51-54; Exhibit 18.

050: Employment Characteristics: Information for each employee such as tenure and full-time equivalency status, and employing district identification number. Items 31-38, 44, 50.

060: Payroll: The payroll amounts paid to each employee. Both pay for regular duties and any supplement amounts are reported by fund, function, object, and program intent. Items 39-42; Exhibit 17 and Exhibit 19.

081: Permit: The type of permit, issue date, role of the individual working under the permit, permit subject area, population served, and permit grade range. Item 46.

090: Staff Responsibilities: The duties performed by each professional and paraprofessional employee. This excludes auxiliary staff. Districts report each class schedule for the employees who are teachers. Items 32-38, 45, 50, 55-60; Exhibit 17 and Exhibit 19.

110: Student Enrollment: Enrollment information about each student, including the student's grade, economically disadvantaged status, and indicators of the special programs in which the student participates. Items 2-14, 44, 45, 61, 63, 65, 79, 81; Exhibit 1, Exhibit 4, Exhibit 5, Exhibit 6, Exhibit 7, and Exhibit B.

201: Basic Dropout Data: Last known information about a dropout; last campus of enrollment, grade level, special education indicator, economically disadvantaged indicator, and exit reason. This record also contains demographic information about the dropout such as sex, ethnicity, and age. Item 16; Exhibit 7, Exhibit 8, Exhibit 9, and Exhibit 14.

202: Basic Graduate Data: Information about each graduate, including the date of graduation, college plans, and type of high school program completed. Items 17, 27; Exhibit 7.

400: Basic Attendance Data: Information about each student for each of the six, six-week attendance reporting periods in the year. For each student, for each six-week period, districts report grade level, number of days taught, days absent, and total eligible and ineligible days present. Items 15, 16; Exhibit 14.

SAT I / ACT File: With permission from public school districts, a file is created by the TEA from scores obtained from the College Board's SAT I and the ACT, Inc., (Enhanced) ACT assessment. Both testing programs typically release summary test score statistics to the TEA, the media, and the public each August for Texas seniors who graduated during that school year. However, the more detailed Texas public school data linking student scores to PEIMS graduate records (which are used to create the TEA file) are available later in the following school year. Thus, given the annual reporting calendar, the test scores in this document are for the class of 1996 graduating seniors. Items 27-30; Exhibit 15 and Exhibit 16.

Special Education Co-ops: An annual TEA data file maintained by the division of Special Education which indicates for each district whether or not the district is a member or fiscal agent of a special education cooperative, the type of district, how many members are in the cooperative, and if applicable, the cooperative name. No item number; indicator that follows district name.

TAAS: The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills results for reading, writing, and mathematics for grades 3-8, and 10 from the spring 1997 test administration. The performance of students who were not enrolled in the district as of October 25, 1996 are excluded from the results published here. Also, the results of students receiving special education services have been excluded. TAAS test files contain percent passing by grade and subject and can be further analyzed by several characteristics of the students tested. Items 18-26; Exhibit 10, Exhibit 11, Exhibit 12, and Exhibit 14.