Tools & Publications

ERS Tools and Publications are trusted resources for education leaders, practitioners, and policymakers seeking guidance to make transformative change. Looking for something you can’t find? Contact us.

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Student-Based Budgeting Community Engagement ESSA

October 26, 2022

“Moving Forward Together”: How Holyoke’s Community-Centric Approach Led To the District’s Bold Strategic Vision

Learn about how Holyoke Public Schools and new Superintendent Anthony Soto worked to foster strategic conversations and intentional collaboration, resulting in 100% of advisory committee... More »

Publications COVID-19 Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio School Leaders Leadership Learn Community Engagement
September 14, 2022

Bridging the Divide: How Tulsa Built Sustainable Improvement Systems to Connect Vision, Strategy, and Implementation

A Unique Approach to Continuous Improvement At its core, TPS’ continuous improvement work builds off of other familiar approaches from the field of education: It engages a diverse... More »

Publications COVID-19 District Leaders School Leaders School Design Leadership Community Engagement Learn More
August 09, 2022

Building a Racial Equity Office to Give All Students a Path Toward Success

If we’re going to give all students the experiences, support, and structures to ensure their success, we need to make sure that each individual student has what they need to... More »

Publications Equity District Leaders Leadership Learn Community Engagement Learn More
Spring 2022

ESSER Guidance for School Staffing, Spending, and Scheduling

The ESSER Guidance for School Staffing, Spending, and Scheduling guides provide a blueprint for organizing resources for a sustainable ESSER investment strategy—one that has an immediate... More »

Publications Tools District Leaders Professional Learning School Leaders School Design Leadership School Support & Accountability Community Engagement Toolkits
February 03, 2022

Adapting District and School Budget Development Processes for FY23 to Optimize Your ESSER Investment

Six key adaptations for districts and schools to serve as a starting point for your team and district community as you collaborate to prioritize, simplify, and streamline your FY23 budget... More »

Publications Tools COVID-19 District Leaders School Leaders School Design Leadership Community Engagement
February 03, 2022

ESSER Plan Communication

5 Key Messaging Imperatives to Build Alignment Among District Leaders, School Boards, and Cabinets More »

Presentations Publications Tools COVID-19 District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting Leadership Community Engagement
Schools Start Here Series

The Schools Start Here series dives into the resource side of ESSER strategy and planning. These guides offer a blueprint for how to organize resources as part of a sustainable ESSER... More »

Publications Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Professional Learning School Leaders School Design School Support & Accountability Community Engagement
May 2021

COVID-19 Reopening and Recovery: Toolkit for Districts and Schools

From equitably meeting students' increased needs, to planning new budgets, to creating safe and effective models for hybrid and fully-remote learning — the options facing districts and... More »

Equity District Leaders COVID-19 School Leaders State Leaders Leadership School Support & Accountability Community Engagement Toolkits
January 30, 2020

ERS Briefing: Supporting School Turnaround

Read the Briefing In turnaround schools, traditional approaches to school improvement (and some say, even the recent seven billion dollar federal investment in school improvement)... More »

Publications ESSA District Leaders School Design Turnaround
January 2019

Transforming School Funding: A Guide to Implementing Student-Based Budgeting

Student-Based Budgeting (SBB) allocates dollars based on enrollment and student need. In this blog, you will find tools and key elements for decision making as you consider SBB for your... More »

District Leaders Equity Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting
December 2018

The Strategic System Snapshot | Mini

A 10-minute self-assessment tool that helps district leaders and others identify which of your strategies are likely to lead to student success—and where there are opportunities to improve. More »

Funding & Portfolio School Design Teaching School Support & Accountability Standards & Instructional Resources Community Engagement
October 01, 2018

What is Resource Equity?

In this working paper, we've identified many - often hidden - "dimensions of equity," and we explain how each links to student outcomes, identify typical sources of inequities within... More »

Publications ESSA District Leaders Equity
August 2018

Weighted Student Funding

Weighted Student Funding has become a popular initiative for district leaders who seek to allocate scarce resources to schools, especially in the face of stubborn achievement gaps,... More »

Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting Toolkits
Education Resource Strategies

Toolkit: What is Student-Based Budgeting? How can it drive student learning?

SBB is a funding system whereby dollars follow students based on student need, and can help increase funding transparency, equity, and flexibility. More »

Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting Toolkits
June 05, 2018

Addressing the Teacher Labor Market Challenge in Arizona

Arizona spends less on K-12 education than almost every other state. But adding resources on top of the current system is likely an ineffective solution. More »

Presentations ESSA Equity State Leaders
March 6, 2018

Toolkit: Advancing Equitable School Funding under ESSA

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states new financial transparency tools to better understand and become leaders for resource equity, but only if they are used well. These... More »

Presentations ESSA State Leaders States
May 2017

It Takes a System: A Case Study of Denver Public Schools (DPS)

Over the last decade, Denver Public Schools (DPS) became one of the fastest-improving large districts in the country—achieving significant improvement across all student subgroups. Unlike... More »

Publications Special Education Compensation District Leaders Professional Learning Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting School Leaders School Design Teaching Leadership School Support & Accountability Turnaround
November 10, 2016

ERS Comments on ESSA Supplement, Not Supplant Regulation

Our comments target strategies that promote both equity and excellence—in other words, how many resources schools receive and how well they use them. We argue that while it is indeed... More »

ESSA Publications State Leaders
October 06, 2016

ESSA Financial Reporting Requirement

Under ESSA, districts must report per-pupil spending at the LEA and school level using actual salary data. This new level of financial transparency aims to promote equity across schools.... More »

ESSA Publications District Leaders State Leaders
September 2016

7 Tenets for Sustainable School Turnaround

A collaboration between Center for American Progress and Education Resource Strategies on the 7 tenets for states to empower districts to become agents of change in school turnaround. More »

Publications ESSA State Leaders Turnaround
May 2015

Following the Dollars to the Classroom Door

More and more districts—and several states—are adopting funding models like student-based budgeting (also called weighted student funding or fair student funding) to increase equity... More »

Publications District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting School Leaders School Design
February 2015

Six Opportunities to Restructure Education Resources in Georgia

From 2012 to 2013, ERS partnered with the Georgia Department of Education to address how the state and a few districts manage their resources. These reports highlight three opportunities... More »

Presentations Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting State Leaders States
April 15, 2014

Student-Based Budgeting Webinar

The following is a video recording of our April 3 webinar on student-based budgeting, based off our recent publication, "Transforming School Funding: A Guide to Implementing Student-Based... More »

Presentations District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting
June 2013

Student-Based Budgeting Video

This short video was created to offer advice to principals considering implementing a student-based budgeting system, also known as weighted-student funding. More »

Videos Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting
March 23, 2013

DREAM

You can do less with less, or you can change your district's cost model by rethinking how schools and systems are structured. DREAM allows you to adjust key cost levers in your district... More »

Tools District Leaders Student-Based Budgeting Teaching Turnaround
March 2013

Partners District Story: Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Despite success turning around many of its lowest-performing schools, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District found that nine of its schools were still struggling. To improve these... More »

Presentations Videos Community Engagement

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