| This report from the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning explores the problems with state finance systems and offers solutions on how to align resource with student learning goals. It is a product from a five-year, in-depth study of K-12 school finances in the United States. The researchers found school finance systems need to be transformed, not tinkered with; to meet today’s student achievement goals. Elements of fixing school finance systems include: allowing federal, state and local dollars to follow students; integrating resource decisions with instructional plans and then measuring and analyzing results of the expenditures; defining and funding research and development that investigates resource use; make resources use and student achievement central to financial reporting practices; and using funding contingencies to create fair and meaningful accountability. |
| This video vignette features the national School Administration Manager (SAM) Project, which helps principals understand how they use their time, gives them a staff person (the “SAM”) to whom operations responsibilities are delegated and provides them with strategies for what to do with their newly found time to lead efforts to improve instruction in the school. This video demonstrates how one school in Louisville, Kentucky, reshaped school leadership. Follow Principal Opal Dawson as she receives increasing support to get out of her office and into classrooms, strengthens relationships with teachers and gets to know students better than ever before. Witness a principal who meets with her SAM on a daily basis, gets professional support from a coach and uses new tools and strategies to spend more time on improving teaching and learning. Along with the video vignette, viewers can access a conversation guide to investigate the issues, strategies and actions raised in the video. |
| The third of six state-of-the-field reports, this paper reviews research, practice and theory related to resource allocation and its relationship to teaching and learning. A variety of current and emerging practices are explored and the challenges leaders face when making resource decisions at the state, district, and school levels are discussed. |
| This is a compilation of excerpts from a 2004 article in the Journal of Education Finance on professional development spending in urban districts. The research team set out to create a standard way to define the components of professional development, describe their purpose and organization, and track and describe their cost. Applying these standardized methods in five different urban school districts, the authors discuss some lessons, findings and applications.<b> </b> |
| In the Oakland Unified School District, the actual amount of staff salaries counts against individual school budgets. So a more experienced employee—who has a bigger paycheck—eats up more of a school’s funding than does a less experienced one. This policy, now in its first year in Oakland, is in contrast to standard budgeting practices. Because schools that serve high-poverty populations often have teachers with less seniority, proponents say, their budgets go further under the model than do the budgets of schools with many veteran educators. |
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