How Citizen Schools Used ERS’ Budget Hold’em to Fund Expanded Learning Time
For two years running, more than 200 leaders, principals, teachers, and staff from Citizen Schools—a nationwide nonprofit committed to improving middle school—gathered for the Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Partnership Summit. The summit gave district leaders from across the country an opportunity to consider programs for enriching students’ academic experiences.
But the third year’s summit offered them a chance to look at things in a new light, to try out various investments and consider tradeoffs that could bring their strategies to life.
The vehicle for this discussion? ERS’ interactive Budget Hold’em for Districts workshop.
Hold’em and the Power of Thinking Outside the Box
Performing this activity hits home for us, because we have needed to do some serious reflection.
—Principal of a Chicago school
By playing Budget Hold’em as a group, education leaders and educators were able to put their ideas to the test, playing investment and budget reduction cards to build a hand of strategies for improving student outcomes.
Players entered the game with some reservations. Many felt constrained by tight budgets and hampered by perceived ways they were required to use funds. But Hold’em enabled players to consider their budget choices with a more expansive view: What are the real constraints holding us back? Which initiatives will give us the greatest return on our investments? Which will impact student outcomes the most?
Playing Budget Hold’em for Districts alongside ERS budget experts sparked these kinds of robust conversations for Citizen Schools’ leaders and educators. Grounded in the system’s actual funding situation, teams thought outside the box, putting creative investments to the test while staying grounded in real-world issues:
- One player uncovered the flexibilities available in Title I and other federal funds, putting dollars toward English language instruction.
- Another player chose to partner with community organizations to provide non-core-subject classes at a lower cost—something the district once thought was impossible
By developing creative ways to use resources, these teams found they could maximize their investments to reach their collective goals. That’s what Hold’em offers districts, schools, and states: The opportunity to tackle tough decisions and find long-term, high-ROI solutions as a team.
This was a provocative, thoughtful exercise and is exactly the right conversation to be having.
—Eric Schwarz, Co-founder of Citizen Schools
Explore All Your Hold’em Options
Hold’em isn’t a one-and-done kind of game. Play it with ERS budget experts, with your team, or online. Target a specific need or explore broader districtwide strategies. No matter how you play, you’ll end the game with creative ways to improve student outcomes and drive financial sustainability.