My ERS: Find and save the information that helps you change the odds

ERStrategies.org – A Resource to Help School, System, and State Leaders

In the late nineties, leaders in Boston Public Schools asked ERS CEO Karen Hawley Miles – a former management consultant then working toward her doctorate in education – to find out if they could cut central office spending. Karen set out to compare BPS spending to peer districts and analyze district growth over time.

Yes, the numbers showed some areas to be more efficient in the central office. But they also revealed a much bigger opportunity.

Karen found that BPS had one teacher for every 13 students, yet class sizes in some elementary schools were 25 and even higher in some secondary schools. Teachers reported feeling lonely and stressed out. This moment was when Karen realized that there was an urgent need to support schools and districts to rethink the way they organize people, time, and money.

That was the start of ERS’ journey. Since then, we have studied or partnered with more than 100 school systems and state departments of education — from large urban systems, to small rural districts, to charter networks. Our mission as a nonprofit is to help education leaders transform how they use resources to create strategic school systems that enable every school to prepare every child for tomorrow, no matter their race or income. At ERStrategies.org, we share stories and data from our work, including research reports, case studies, videos of promising practices, worksheets, and online tools.

We hope these tools help education leaders learn from each other and address their biggest challenges. We know there is aloton this site, so we wanted to make it easier for you to find what you need. The sooner you find it, the sooner you can make transformational change.

Introducing My ERS

My ERS is your personalized portal to find and save tools and publications that can help you use resources strategically for every child in every school. After you sign up for a free ERS Account, you can:

• Get recommended tools and publications based on your role and interests
• Bookmark and return to your favorite content
• Save your progress in online tools like Budget Hold’em

Find a favorite tool, report, or blog? We encourage you to share it with your colleagues through social media or email!

→ Getting started

• Click on “Sign in” located in the upper right-hand corner of every page on the site
• Enter your name, email, and role; you can sign up for monthly ERS newsletters
• This signs you up for a free ERS Account— when you sign in, you’ll see the My ERS portal
• We will never sell or share your data

→ Find: Get recommended content

• ERS will recommend content for you based on your role and interests
• Find recommendations bysigning in to the My ERS portal, or alongside any page in our Tools and Publications section

→ Save: Tools and publications

• Bookmark your favorite content by clicking on the small green heart in the right-hand corner of each page
• Return to your list of bookmarks in your My ERS Account
• Save your progress in online tools like Budget Hold ‘em for Districts or the Strategic Snapshot | Mini
• Share and compare your assessments with others through the group function

→Share: Social sharing and email options

• On every page, you’ll see options to share on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or to email a link. We encourage you to share these resources with your colleagues!

Ideas or Suggestions?

Please feel free to reach out to Kristan Singleton, our Director of Tools and Technologies, with any ideas, comments, or questions.