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District and State Partners

For over 10 years, we’ve partnered with more than 40 school systems nationwide on issues from teacher effectiveness and school funding to redesigning central office support of schools. Read about our engagements below. For information on working with us, contact ERS Partner Jonathan Travers.

What we do in our District Partnerships:

  • Analyze Resources: With our Strategic Resource Map, we analyze budget, staffing, scheduling, and student performance data to understand how the system's enabling conditions and resources currently align with its goals as well as best practice. For a lighter touch, we provide The Strategic System Snapshot. These processes allow us to analyze data and make comparisons with districts across the country in ways that no other organization shed light on previously unrecognized resource opportunities.
  • Design Strategies: Drawing on our Strategic Resource Map and Snapshot, our comparative database, experience with other districts, and current research, we identify where and how to shift resources to better align student and teacher needs to district goals. For example, we support the design of new funding, teacher career path and compensation systems and new teacher support models. Our School Design Innovation Project is a three-year district collaboration in which we create prototypes for new school designs that organize existing resources for high performance, and work with district leaders to define repeatable, high-quality, school-level systems, structures, and routines to enable and sustain them.
  • Support Implementation: We provide planning and analytic support to district teams as they turn new strategies into reality in the areas of school design, teaching, leadership, funding & portfolio, and school support & accountability. For example, we help implement Student-Based Budgeting systems and Equity Metrics Reports for districts.

For information on working with ERS, contact Jonathan Travers.

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    Atlanta Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2008-2010, 2017-present
    ERS is partnering with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to support the rollout of a student-based budgeting funding system (APS refers to this as student-success funding, but it's also known... More »
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    Baltimore City Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2004-2017
    ERS has partnered with Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) on a number of projects since 2004 to assess district data and practice and to support strategic decision-making in the areas... More »
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    Hartford Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2017-present
    ERS is partnering with Hartford Public Schools (HPS) to support the new superintendent, Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodrigues, in developing and implementing a District Model for Excellence, a plan... More »
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    Indianapolis Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2014, 2015-present
    ERS is partnering with Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) to perform a deep-dive financial analysis and support the transition to Student-Based Allocations (also known as Weighted Student... More »
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    Madison Metropolitan School District
    Current Partners, 2018
    ERS is partnering with Madison Metropolitan School District to improve the allocation of resources related to: students with disabilities (SWD), the district's behavior education plan... More »
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    Montgomery County Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2018-present
    ERS is partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) starting in 2018 to map and assess resource use, focusing on equity, and create a communication and engagement plan. More »
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    Shelby County School District (Memphis)
    Current Partners, 2017-2020
    ERS is partnering with Shelby County Schools to help roll out a new student-based budgeting (SBB) funding system and to support a cohort of schools in the strategic school design... More »
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    Tulsa Public Schools
    Current Partners, 2015, 2017-present
    ERS is partnering with Tulsa (TPS) to map resource use with a focus on change management, create a teacher compensation model, create a five year strategic plan, and connect... More »

Past Partners

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    Aldine Independent School District
    Past Partners, 2013-2014
    ERS partnered with the Aldine Independent School District (AISD), in Texas, to map its resource use and improve its human capital strategy. More »
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    Austin Independent School District
    Past Partners, 2012-2013
    ERS partnered with Austin Independent School District (AISD) to map resource use, to identify ways that people, time, and money could be used most strategically in the district. More »
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    Boston Public Schools
    Past Partners, 1999-2001; 2004-2008; 2009-2010; 2013-2014; 2015-2016; 2016-2017
    ERS has been partnering with Boston Public Schools (BPS) for over a decade, in projects covering professional development (PD) spending, comprehensive resource mapping and analysis,... More »
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    Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
    Past Partners, 2008-2011, 2013-2016
    ERS is partnering with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to analyze school and district resource use, support innovative school design within CMS’ Strategic Staffing Initiative,... More »
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    Chicago Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2001, 2006, 2013
    ERS has partnered with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to strengthen its professional development (PD) program to improve literacy instruction, to analyze CPS and school resource use, and to... More »
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    Cincinnati Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2000-2001, 2006-2007
    ERS has partnered with Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) to conduct a comprehensive review of the district’s professional development (PD), monitor its progress in achieving PD goals,... More »
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    Cleveland Metropolitan School District
    Past Partners, 2012-2016
    ERS is partnering with Cleveland (CMSD) to map resource use and to support human capital strategy, strategic school design, and the development of a Student-Based Budgeting system as part... More »
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    Denver Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2011-2012, 2014
    In 2014, we partnered with DPS to incorporate a "System-Strategy" return-on-investment approach into their strategic planning, so the district can reach the ambitious student achievement... More »
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    District of Columbia Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2005–2007; 2011-2012
    ERS partnered with the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) to analyze the allocation of resources and to help the district use the findings to improve student performance. More »
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    Duval County Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2010-2011
    In July of 2010 ERS launched a partnership with Duval County Public Schools, located near Jacksonville, Florida, to complete a resource map of the district, examining how they currently... More »
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    Los Angeles Unified School District
    Past Partners, 2002-2003, 2007, 2017-2019
    ERS has partnered with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to build leadership capacity in budgeting, to redesign middle schools, and to analyze the budget to support effective... More »
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    Nashville (Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools)
    Past Partners, 2014-2016
    ERS is partnering with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to help the district analyze and interpret its resource use findings, support the design and implementation of a... More »
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    New Haven Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2014-2015
    ERS is partnering with New Haven Public Schools to analyze their use of resources through the Strategic Resource Map. More »
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    New York City Department of Education
    Past Partners, 2004–2005
    ERS partnered with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) to inform the district’s efforts to rethink the role of Human Resources (HR) in supporting a comprehensive... More »
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    Newark Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2011-2012
    In September 2011 ERS launched a partnership with Newark Public Schools to complete a resource map of the district to examine how they currently use resources to support student learning... More »
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    Oakland Unified School District
    Past Partners, 2007, 2015-2017
    ERS partnered with Oakland Unified School District to conduct both a high-level and deep-dive analysis of how the district uses its resources to achieve student success, using our System... More »
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    Palm Beach (The School District of Palm Beach County)
    Past Partners, 2015-2016
    ERS is partnering with Palm Beach to map resource use and to support human capital strategy, strategic school design, help surface areas to reinvest to support their under-performing and... More »
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    Philadelphia (The School District of Philadelphia)
    Past Partners, 2007-2009, 2014-2015
    ERS is partnering with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) to conduct an analysis of resource use in the central office. More »
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    Prince George's County Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2010-2013
    ERS partnered with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), an urban district just outside of Washington, D.C., to map the district’s overall resource use and support the... More »
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    Providence Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2004-2005
    ERS partnered with Providence Public Schools (PPS) to analyze the district’s budget, to assess current spending and school-level equity, and to identify opportunities to use resources to... More »
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    Rochester City School District
    Past Partners, 2004-2005, 2007-2011
    ERS has partnered with Rochester City School District (RCSD) on a variety of projects, from analyses of professional development practices, central office spending, and school design,... More »
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    Sacramento City Unified School District
    Past Partners, 2009
    ERS partnered with Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) for two months in the fall of 2009 to give the new superintendent a sense of the resource landscape in his new district. More »
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    Saint Paul Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2006-2007
    ERS partnered with Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) to deepen the district’s understanding of its current school system spending. More »
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    Santa Fe Public Schools
    Past Partners, 2014
    ERS is partnering with Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) to help inform and support the implementation of a Fair Student Funding (FSF) system, also known as Student-Based Budgeting. More »
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    Syracuse City School District
    Past Partners, 2010-2011
    ERS partnered with the Say Yes to Education Foundation to examine current resource use in Syracuse City School District and identify ways the district can reallocate funds to support the... More »
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    Waterbury Public Schools (Special Project)
    Past Partners, Summer 2013
    ERS partnered with the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) and three summer graduate student fellows to provide a school systems funding analysis for Waterbury Public Schools.... More »

What we do in our State Partnerships:

  • Analyze statewide resource patterns that help focus state support and resource decisions to improve how well districts and schools organize resources.
  • Audit state funding systems to determine opportunities to increase equity or adequacy of overall funding.
  • Support ESSA implementation to conduct required resource reviews of lower performing districts.
  • Provide hands-on support and workshops with cohorts of districts and schools within states to support strategic school and system design. 

To learn about new tools and publications designed to help state leaders promote equity and excellence, sign up for the States Lead Now newsletter. For more information, contact Joseph Trawick-Smith.

Past Partners

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    Connecticut Council for Education Reform (Special Project)
    Past Partners, 2014-2015
    ERS partnered with the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER) to provide school system funding analysis for three school districts – Bridgeport, Hamden and Windham. More »
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    Georgia Department of Education
    Past Partners, 2012-2014
    ERS is partnering with the Georgia Department of Education to map resource use and support new resource strategies in five districts, support teacher compensation reform, analyze... More »
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    Michigan State University
    Past Partners, 2012-2014
    ERS worked with the Michigan Department of Education to provide training and support for state and district-level staff working with “Priority Schools," which are among the lowest... More »
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    New York State Education Department (NYSED)
    Past Partners, 2014-2015
    ERS is partnering with the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to support a group of districts in improving their use of resources, and to identify the best metrics the state can... More »
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    Tennessee Accelerated Planning Districts
    Past Partners, 2013-2014
    In this six-month engagement, ERS is working with 35 Tennessee districts, known as “Accelerated Planning Districts,” through the Department of Education to support the development of... More »

In June 2016, ERS established a presence in California to better serve our west coast district partners.

California exemplifies some of the biggest challenges in K-12 education. Yet California districts are responding to these challenges with innovation and optimism, and in some cases seeing noteworthy student improvement. ERS has worked with a number of California school systems and leaders, looking at issues such as:

  • Strategic budgeting and planning - especially in the context of LCFF
  • Resource equity
  • Absenteeism
  • Teacher professional learning

Learn more about ERS' work in California here.

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