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ERS has partnered with a number of districts on implementing weighted student funding (WSF), which is also known as fair student funding or student-based budgeting. This presentation...
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School Design in Action is a new section of our website that features interactive portraits of schools that are optimizing resources for student success.
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ERS final report summarizing research on the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) and the participative community “work-out” process that was held in response to research results. The...
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Education Resource Strategies recently hosted a webinar on how to play the budget trade-off game called School Budget Hold'em. The game lets district leaders, and anyone involved in the...
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School districts have the responsibility to design a compensation structure that maximizes their ability to meet teacher recruitment and retention goals within the context of long-term...
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These nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools served as the foundation for ERS’ report Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools. We dubbed...
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Ten years ago, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) had 65,000 students. Today it has fewer than 45,000. The severe enrollment decline was a wake-up call for the district. Starting in 2007, DCPS...
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The School Funding System worksheet series includes analysis sheets on the spending variation per pupil and worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure...
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The School Funding System worksheet series includes analysis sheets on the spending variation per pupil and worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure...
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Before schools can systematically implement a district’s vision for excellent school practices, district leadership must clearly articulate exactly what school strategies they believe...
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Nationwide, districts and states seek to place more accountability for student performance with principals and teachers at the school level. We have found that schools implementing...
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The national focus on creating “standards based” schools and “accountability” is pushing school districts and schools to define their goals and priorities for student learning more...
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“Turnaround Case Studies” is an analysis of strategies to turn around low-performing schools undertaken by six large urban districts and four education management organizations. These...
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Today’s challenging goals change the job of teaching and the needs for resources. Yet the basic organization of schools looks much the same as it did fifty years ago. This brief presents...
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This New American Schools District Issues Brief provides an overview of three challenges related to the use and organization of resources as districts move to create higher performing...
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In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission to conduct a Resource Use Analysis for the School District of Philadelphia...
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The Annenberg Institute for School Reform’s Voices in Urban Education publication, produced in partnership with ERS, grew from the ERS-convened Fair Student Funding Summit in March 2010....
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In 2006, Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District made a bold move. It began to strategically staff a subset of its lowest-performing schools with its district’s best principals. Five years...
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Despite success turning around many of its lowest-performing schools, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District found that nine of its schools were still struggling. To improve these...
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Over the past decade, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) has faced severe enrollment decline–from 65,000 students to 45,000. As a result, the district took a hard look at their...
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In 2008, the U-46 School District in Illinois faced a budget deficit of $45 million. Instead of deciding to do less with limited funds, the district worked with the school board and...
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By transforming its central office from a compliance watchdog to a service and strategic partner, Denver Public Schools (DPS) was able to leverage data, technology, and training to...
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The School Design worksheet series includes worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure effective school design and portfolio management. These analyses...
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The School Design worksheet series includes worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure effective school design and portfolio management. These analyses...
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The School Design worksheet series includes worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure effective school design and portfolio management. These analyses...
More »
The School Design worksheet series includes worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure effective school design and portfolio management. These analyses...
More »
The School Design worksheet series includes worksheets with step-by-step instructions to help you calculate and measure effective school design and portfolio management. These analyses...
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This full report of Baltimore Public Schools (City Schools) explores the implementation process and results of a fair student funding system.
Fair Student Funding in Baltimore City (PDF)
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After examining Baltimore City Public Schools' implementation of fair student funding and accompanying reforms, ERS shares the extent to which City Schools met the objectives and...
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To improve student performance, Denver Public Schools (DPS) took an innovative look at how they could support individual school efforts to restructure and align their resources – people,...
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