All Resources

School Budget Hold’em:
Online trade-off game to transform districts and meet budget challenges

ERS, November 3rd, 2011

Education funding decisions should never be left to chance. School Budget Hold ‘em is more than a game…it’s an interactive exploration of the thoughtful trade-offs school administrators have to make in these challenging budget times.

Tags: school systems, tough times, teaching effectiveness, resource allocation, school design, per pupil spending, schools, teaching, strategic designs, accountability

Resource Mapping Summary Report:
Presentation to the DPS Board

Education Resource Strategies, January 17, 2012

ERS’ public presentation to the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. See an example of resource mapping results and how this kind of analysis can reveal a road map for how to most effectively and efficiently meet goals for improving instruction.

Tags: school systems, tough times, resource allocation, strategic designs, district, budget, denver

The Resourceful School:
Turning Crisis into Opportunity

by Naomi Calvo and Karen Hawley Miles
Educational Leadership, December 2011

The new Issue of Education Leadership focuses on tough times and strategies for making the most of decreasing budgets.

Tags: tough times, school design, schools, teaching, strategic designs, accountability

Turnaround Summit Video

Videos from the ERS Summit, Sustaining Turnaround at Scale.

Tags: school systems, tough times, teaching effectiveness, resource allocation, school design, human capital, schools, teaching, strategic designs, accountability, instructional systems, turnaround

Sustaining Turnaround at Scale - Session Summaries

A brief description of every panel presentation from the ERS Summit, Sustaining Turnaround at Scale.

Tags: school systems, tough times, teaching effectiveness, resource allocation, school design, human capital, schools, teaching, strategic designs, accountability, instructional systems, turnaround

Memphis White Paper:
Learning When to Hold'em and When to Fold'em

ERS, October 27, 2010

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 earlier this year for the city schools of Memphis, Tennessee.

Tags: school systems, tough times, teaching effectiveness, resource allocation, school design, human capital, schools, teaching, strategic designs, accountability, turnaround

Sustaining Turnaround at Scale - Posters:
A comparison of district turnaround strategies

Education Resource Strategies held a summit, “Sustaining Turnaround at Scale”. As part of the summit’s effort to compare different turnaround strategies, ERS created posters showing different and unique turnaround strategies.

Tags: schools, district, turnaround, charlotte, ausl, boston, miami-dade, denver, cincinnati, chicago

Transformation or decline?:
Using tough times to create higher-performing schools

by Karen Hawley Miles
Kappan, October 2011

ERS Executive Director Karen Hawley Miles writes about strategies for restructuring, going in depth on four changes districts should consider to alleviate budget pressure while improving student performance.

Tags: tough times, schools, district, budget

Act Now to Transform School Systems

by Karen Hawley Miles and Karen Baroody
PIE Network, September 2011

This article identifies seven priorities that could help districts invest in transformation. It then reviews the barriers that prevent change and the steps state policy makers can take to overcome the barriers.

Tags: school systems, tough times, teaching effectiveness, resource allocation, school design, human capital, schools, teaching, strategic designs, district, budget

Realigning Resources for District Success:
Duval County Public Schools Final Report

by Jonathan Travers and Kristen Ferris
ERS, September 2011

After one year of in-depth resource analysis, ERS released a report on Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), Realigning Resources for District Success.

Tags: schools, district