Evidence and Funding: Connecting the Dots

Chiefs for Change, a coalition of state education chiefs and district superintendents, released Evidence and Funding: Connecting the Dots, a policy brief that highlights new opportunities for states to make forward-thinking investments with federal funds. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) grants states more flexibility to use federal funds and programs, with the provision that those funds are spent on evidence-based strategies. Chiefs for Change provides a framework that state education chiefs can use to magnify the impact of federal dollars by strategically matching resources to key priorities for schools and students, while maximizing the use of evidence-based approaches. The brief profiles chiefs in Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Mexico who are already using these flexibilities to improve outcomes for their students. “Evidence and Funding” references our paper Seven Tenets for Sustainable Turnaround that provides high-level principles as ESSA gives states greater autonomy to support their lowest-performing schools. 

We recommend assessing your current resource use before adding on federal funds. The following ERS tools can help:

• Resource check: Assess your district's current resource use
• School check: Find out if your school's resources are being used strategically
• Turnaround resource check: Assess your district resource choices for turnaround schools