Six Opportunities to Restructure Education Resources in Georgia

From 2012 to 2013, ERS partnered with the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) to address how the state and a few select districts manage their resources—including people, time, and money—for student success. Through this partnership we worked closely with five districts on what we call the Strategic Resource Map, and we worked with GaDOE to examine how state-level policies affect district resource use. We found three priority opportunities for Georgia to reallocate resources to better meet student needs, and we offered three recommendations for how the state could better support districts. The following reports summarize the findings of our many months of analysis, interviews, observations and conversations with state and local leaders.

Though these reports are specific to Georgia, we think that many other states and districts will see themselves in these "priority opportunities." These two reports address:

• Class size mandates
• Teacher compensation
• Extra instructional time for struggling students
• Fostering district and school flexibility to meet student needs
• Leveraging state data systems to better inform district decision-making
• Providing targeted support to help districts incubate or spread promising practices
• The state's funding system

The State's Priority Opportunities to Support Education Reform in Georgia through Resource Reallocation (PDF)

Awarding Dollars Based on Student Need: A Recommendation to Implement Weighted Student Funding in Georgia (PDF)