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Other ERS
Practice Areas

• Professional Development
• School Funding Systems
• School Level Resource Use
• Performance Management
• School System Design

Publications on School Funding Systems from ERS

Understanding Student-Weighted Allocation as a Means to Greater School Resource Equity
by K. H. Miles and Roza

Article compares the different levels of resources between schools within districts and how to change the method for allocating resources to a student-based approach. Published in Peabody Journal of Education, Winter, 2005.
View and download in PDF format.

To see other publications from ERS on School Funding Systems, click here.

School Funding Systems

We cannot hold schools accountable to the same high standards without first ensuring a level playing field that accounts for differences in student needs and empowering school leaders to organize resources to meet those needs.

Through our School Funding Systems practice, ERS helps district leaders determine equitable and appropriate spending levels for individual schools, programs, and students. This work can serve as a precursor to a more flexible weighted student funding system or a shift in the use of school system resources.

Our Approach

Our School Funding Systems practice outlines how and where district resources are used, bringing clarity and transparency to decisions about resource use and school and student funding. We work with school and community leaders to provide:  

• A recoding of the district budget to accurately reflect how and where resources are used
• An analysis of per pupil spending down to the school and program level, highlighting equity and inconsistencies
• A comparison of resource use against ERS’s benchmark district data and research-based approaches to improving student performance
• A strategy for allocating resources flexibly according to the different needs of schools and students
• Effective systems for tracking spending to the school, program, teacher, and student level
• Strategies for increased school leader flexibility and appropriate control of resources

Our Clients

A clearer understanding of funding levels is essential, as efforts such as the Charter School and Small Schools Movement require districts to increasingly differentiate their management and funding of schools while ensuring equity of resources.  ERS’s has helped to better define school funding in:

ERS Web-Based Tools

DREAM – District ResourcE Allocation Remodeler

With support from the School Redesign Finance Project and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ERS has developed, DREAM, a web-based tool that allows district leaders to test a variety of scenarios for resource use and see the impact on per pupil costs and the overall system budget.

Get more information and see how DREAM can inform school funding decisions

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