When talking about education and education data in Pennsylvania, the term “ADM” is often used…but what does it mean? ADM stands for Average Daily Membership.
Average daily membership is the term used to define the number of students for which a school district is financially responsible. Charter school students and other students for which a school district pays tuition are included in the school district’s ADM count along with students who attended the school district for any portion of the year (which is why ADM count has several decimal places!).
As a result, a school district’s ADM count is generally larger than its enrollment (which is a snapshot-in-time look at the number of students in the school district on a specific day). ADMs are frequently used in education funding formulas and also to break down costs and other metrics on a per-student basis.
Across the state, the total ADMs for the 2018-19 fiscal year were 1,716,518, while the 2019-20 enrollment was 1,516,255. Using a specific school district as an example, Bermudian Springs SD had 2,031 ADMs for 2018-19, while its enrollment for 2019-20 was 1,913 students.