Rethinking School System Resources to Create Excellence and Equity

This New American Schools District Issues Brief provides an overview of three challenges related to the use and organization of resources as districts move to create higher performing schools. Four additional briefs listed in the end-notes discuss these critical areas of resource allocation in more detail.

In our work with districts implementing comprehensive school reform over the past six years, we have found that district leaders typically need to:

• Re-align district spending levels and patterns to better support comprehensive school designs and academic priorities;
• Support and encourage schools in re-structuring their use of resources to support their comprehensive school reform designs and academic priorities;
• Redesign district practices to give schools and their principals more control over the use and organization of their resources.

Rethinking School System Resources to Create Excellence and Equity (PDF)