My In-Depth practicum project consisted of compiling student financial aid data over the past 4 years from the “extracurricular fund.” Hackley allocates $800 to each student receiving financial aid (ranging from 3% to 100%) to help them have a full educational experience at Hackley without letting money hold them back from participation and success. Students can use their funds to meet their individual needs as long as the use is approved by the Director of the Upper School. The uses run the gamut but include athletic expenses (equipment, proper attire and footwear, team trips), music lessons, AP test fees, SAT prep and college essay writing courses, prom and graduation expenses , and a variety of other things. I was charged with determining who is using the funds, how much they are using, who isn’t using the funds, what unmet needs there were, what amount of money was going unused, and if there was a more equitable way to distribute the funds.
Below is a summary of my findings.
These statistics are taken from the handwritten log of extracurricular funds dispersed to students who are receiving some level of financial aid from Hackley. Due to the nature of the log, the numbers may not be exact (ex. handwriting legibility, marks confusing whether or not specific funds were actually dispersed, etc). However, they do provide a good estimate of the amount of money that is being accessed by students in each grade level on a year to year basis.
The range of activities on which students are spending these funds is quite broad; however, the largest expenses seem to be sports trips and equipment, academic trips, lessons at the music institute, driver’s education classes, AP tests, SAT prep/ college essay prep, tutoring, and prom and graduation expenses. Last year, each student was allocated $800 to spend on extracurricular expenses that would allow them to fully participate in all aspects of a Hackley education, regardless of financial means. Only around $30,000 of the $63,000 were actually spent yet there were many students who maxed out their available funds and were unable to participate in later events and activities. We see this primarily with students who use their funds to support one large expense, most frequently a spring sport that requires travel, and additionally academic trips and study at the music institute. For every student that plays on the baseball team, the entirety of their extracurricular fund is allocated to the baseball trip. While this may be equal that they only receive $800 just like every other student, it makes it difficult to be on the baseball team and also pay for SAT prep or AP tests.
In the first two years, a smaller percentage of students are accessing the funds and those who do are primarily using it for sports expenses, music lessons, academic trips, and some tutoring. However, once junior and senior years hit, the range of expenses greatly increases as does the percentage of students eligible for aid who are using the allocated funds. Students are taking and preparing for the PSAT, SAT, and AP tests, going on more field trips, having more school sponsored special events (prom, class day, and graduation). Accordingly, the range of students needing the pool of money increases to an average of 83% of eligible students, a large increase from those accessing it freshman year. Junior year appears to be the most expensive, as seen not simply by the amounts allocated to each student, but by the sheer number of students who are in need of assistance paying for the activities—the slight drop in senior year signifies that it is not a phenomenon of increased awareness of the fund throughout years spent at Hackley.
There are several options in addressing the disparities amongst students needing the aid and the amount left over at the end of the year. The first would be to maintain the status quo, which for the majority of students is acceptable, yet it restricts a portion of students from participation. Secondly, an option would be to lift the cap entirely on funds to be used by students and let allocations be made on a request/availability basis. The problem with this method is that the most persistent students could potentially prevent other students from receiving any funds at all. The following ideas are somewhere in the middle and might be a good compromise.
- Increase the funds available to juniors and seniors as the expenses for those years seem to greater than in the first portion of high school. This could be done by lowering the amounts available for 9th and 10th grade, allowing the pool of funds to remain the same size. A downside of this would be that the students accessing the money for sports and academic trips in their first two years would be able to receive less funding.
- Lower the individual allocations for all students to $500 or $600 each and pool the rest of the funds into a general allocation fund that students may apply for on an as-needed basis. This would allow for all students to have access to a specific amount of money and then make exceptions depending on the activity to sponsor. This way, less money would be wasted by students not using their individual allotments and students with larger expenditures would not be limited to $800.
- Create a separate funding system for large expenditures, specifically athletics, the music institute, and academic trips. This could be in the form of fellowships, endowments, or simply a division of the current funds for different purposes. This would ensure that students who chose an activity that is more expensive than others are not limited throughout the rest of the school year by the cost of one trip. Think baseball and AP scenario from earlier. It would need to be decided where the funds would come from (potentially future development opportunities) and how they would be allocated.
| 2005-2006 School Year | Students Accessing the Fund | Total Amount Used | Average Amount Used By Students Accessing the Fund | Students Maxing Out Their Available Funds (80% or more) |
| 9th Grade | 10/20 (50%) | $4,536 | $453 | 3/10 (30%) |
| 10th Grade | 8/18 (50%) | $4,646 | $580 | 5/8 (62%) |
| 11th Grade | 18/20 (90%) | $9,836 | $546 | 9/18 (50%) |
| 12th Grade | 17/21 (81%) | $8.989 | $528 | 7/17 (41%) |
| 2006-2007 School Year | Students Accessing the Fund | Total Amount Used | Average Amount Used By Students Accessing the Fund | Students Maxing Out Their Available Funds (80% or more) |
| 9th Grade | 12/23 (52%) | $5,447 | $454 | 5/12 (42%) |
| 10th Grade | 11/20 (55%) | $7,831 | $712 | 9/11 (82%) |
| 11th Grade | 14/18 (77%) | $9,092 | $649 | 9/14 (64%) |
| 12th Grade | 15/21 (71%) | $9,486 | $632 | 10/15 (66%) |
| 2007-2008 School Year | Students Accessing the Fund | Total Amount Used | Average Amount Used By Students Accessing the Fund | Students Maxing Out Their Available Funds (80% or more) |
| 9th Grade | 9/19 (47%) | $3,349 | $372 | 2/9 (22%) |
| 10th Grade | 15/20 (75%) | $8,864 | $591 | 9/15 (60%) |
| 11th Grade | 16/21 (76%) | $9,277 | $580 | 9/16 (56%) |
| 12th Grade | 11/15 (73%) | $6,696 | $608 | 8/11 (73%) |
| 2008-2009 School Year | Students Accessing the Fund | Total Amount Used | Average Amount Used By Students Accessing the Fund | Students Maxing Out Their Available Funds (80% or more) |
| 9th Grade | 8/17 (47%) | $5,496 | $687 | 7/8 (88%) |
| 10th Grade | 10/20 (50%) | $4,542 | $454 | 4/10 (40%) |
| 11th Grade | 21/23 (91%) | $13,275 | $632 | 13/21 (62%) |
| 12th Grade | 16/19 (84%) | $6,851 | $428 | 5/16 (31%) |
| Average Over Past 4 Years (Since the Increase to $800) | % of Students Accessing the Fund | Total Amount Used | Average Amount Used By Students Accessing the Fund | % of Individual Available Funds Used on Average By Each Student |
| 9th Grade | 49% | $4,707 | $471 | 59% |
| 10th Grade | 58% | $6,471 | $588 | 74% |
| 11th Grade | 83% | $10,370 | $610 | 76% |
| 12th Grade | 79% | $8,006 | $534 | 67% |
