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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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Teachers need more support to meet the demands of college and career ready standards. Where can schools systems find the money, staff, and time to provide truly transformational...
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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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One out of a series of three ERS publications on teacher compensation, this paper explores how to rethink compensation and career paths to attract and retain the most effective teachers.
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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 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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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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Hear from:
Sam Franklin, Executive Director of the Office of Teacher Effectiveness, Pittsburgh Public Schools
Brian Pick, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, D.C. Public Schools
Alyssa...
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The School System 20/20 infographic lets you see the possibilities for system transformation through ERS' seven-strategy framework. It illustrates the challenges to reallocating...
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This web-based tool is designed to help you dive into the transformational strategies that lead to better resource use. Resource Check is a questionaire that tallies and analyzes your...
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One Vision, Seven Strategies is the culmination of ERS' deep experience working with school systems around the country. It presents our vision for transforming school systems and why...
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One of a series of three publications on rethinking teacher compensation. Rethinking the Value Proposition to Improve Teaching Effectiveness explores the complete set of offerings and...
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This paper explores typical goals of compensation redesign and implications for five main design considerations, including: base salary, district priority incentives, school roles,...
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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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These easy-to-use instructions will help leaders organize and play School Budget Hold'em as a group. The Facilitator's Guide provides three different approaches for playing the game based...
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The December 2011 Issue of Education Leadership focuses on tough times and strategies for making the most of decreasing budgets. ERS’ Karen Hawley Miles and Naomi Calvo (formerly from...
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Tough times provide school districts with the opportunity to make big changes, helping alleviate the budget pressure in the short term and create a new foundation that will provide the...
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Facing turbulent economic times, school districts instinctively fight to maintain their head above water, trying to minimize the damage being done. What if instead districts and state...
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Millions of education dollars are trapped each year. At this time of continued budget shortfalls when every dollar spent on education must yield maximum returns in student...
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Across the country, states and school districts are focusing on turning around the nation’s lowest-performing schools. This focus on school turnaround, while welcome, is not new. And...
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With escalating education costs in a time of declining school budgets, ERS articulates for state leaders opportunities to shift scarce funds toward the most critical areas. ERS Executive...
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Recent work on improving teaching effectiveness has focused on preparing and hiring better teachers and on identifying and removing the lowest-performing teachers. These efforts are...
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If your school district is facing a budget issue, it might surprise you to learn that the solution might very well lie in a game of cards. That certainly was the case Memphis City...
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The growing urgency to design schools that work, coupled with crippling state and local budget reductions, means it is more important than ever to make investments where it really...
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In this case study of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Strategic Staffing Initiative, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) and the Aspen Institute tell the important story of how one district is...
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In March 2010, urban education leaders gathered in Baltimore, MD for the Fair Student Funding Summit, a conference that brought together districts that use weighted student funding (WSF)...
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These are tough times for schools and districts, and they will get tougher. Federal stimulus funds have created some breathing room, but unless districts use these funds to plan for and...
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