TUSD says 6, not 12, schools lost more than 20% enrollment

Tucson Unified School District officials say they calculate enrollment data differently than the federal benchmarks used in a new report, and that as a result, they disagree that 12 district schools lost more than 20% of their students during the pandemic.

The district did not dispute the numbers, however, until after the Arizona Daily Star provided them to a district spokeswoman, interviewed TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo about them and published a Sunday article highlighting the findings of the Brookings Institution report and national education news outlet The 74.

TUSD countered this week that six of its schools lost at least 20% of their students between school years 2019-20 and 2020-21: Booth-Fickett Math/Science K-8 Magnet (26.5%), Henry Elementary (22.1%), Myers/Ganoung Elementary (22.1%), Sewell Elementary (25.9%), Steele Elementary (21.7%) and Warren Elementary (20.3%).

That contrasts with the findings of Brookings and The 74 that a dozen TUSD schools lost more than 20% in those peak pandemic years: Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet, Dunham Elementary, Ford Elementary, Gridley Middle, Henry Elementary, Magee Middle, Myers-Ganoung Elementary, Harold Steele Elementary, Utterback Middle, Sewel Elementary, Warren Elementary and Borton Primary Magnet.

The TUSD data is different because The 74 and Brookings took numbers from Oct. 1 of each school year, which is standard procedure for the National Center for Education Statistics or NCES, said David Scott, a retired data specialist for the district.

Tucson Unified instead bases enrollment numbers off of the 40th day of each school year.

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Scott said the district uses that specific day because it is near peak school-year enrollment.

“The state uses the average of first 40 and first 100 days to determine our funding level each school year,” Scott said. “The 40th day is a useful comparison date for operational reasons (how many teachers will we need to meet our classroom needs) and for financial reasons (how much money will our enrollment generate).

“These factors were not relevant to the NCES when they chose their count date,” said Scott, who is TUSD’s former director of accountability and research.

The National Center for Education Statistics is under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Education. It is the part of the Institute of Education Sciences, which collects, analyzes and publishes national statistics on education and public school district finances.

Trujillo said in an interview Jan. 12 that no TUSD schools are at risk of closing due to enrollment loss.