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.
Data-driven instruction is the systematic use of common, standards-based assessments and other data to track student progress and adjust instruction and support—to drive meaningful...
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See how UP Academy in Dorchester, a neighborhood in Boston, MA, has made dramatic academic improvements by focusing on strategic collaboration among teachers.
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The standard annual budgeting process is focused on incremental changes to last year's budget. Yet strategic superintendents and CFOs know that an effective budget process is much more...
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ERS’ School Designer tool integrates districts’ planning and budgeting processes so that key resource decisions, including those related to a school’s schedule, staffing plan, and budget,...
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Revere High School—located just outside Boston, MA—is successfully serving its students with disabilities using the co-teaching method. The school set up inclusive classrooms led by...
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When Dr. Lourenço Garcia became principal of Revere High School in 2012, he recognized that this traditional school design would need to change to better serve students and meet rising...
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Aldine Independent School District has faced daunting challenges and achieved impressive results since the early 1990s. This School System 20/20 case study explores how they did it.
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Under ESSA, state education agencies have the opportunity to establish a new vision for partnership with districts - one based on their powers to allocate, regulate, and importantly,...
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Too often, district efforts to create teacher leadership roles don’t last past the pilot phase. This checklist defines key steps to successful, sustainable, and scalable career...
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ERS is now working with selected districts to perform the School System 20/20 Diagnostic—a data-informed, holistic series of assessments to help leaders in their efforts to redesign...
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Want to learn more about Student-Based Budgeting and how can it drive student learning?
See Our Latest Toolkit
This webinar is based on our publication, Following the Dollars to the...
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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...
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These short papers highlight common opportunities school systems have to yield big results for students by adjusting their current resource use. It is based on ERS' 10 years of close...
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In 2011, Lawrence Public Schools was the first district that Massachusetts placed into state receivership due to poor performance. By 2014, things had dramatically changed for the better....
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Effective teachers are the biggest in-school factor related to student success. Across the country, a diverse set of districts are pioneering innovative approaches to teacher compensation...
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With the enactment of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013, California districts face an unprecedented opportunity to make big changes. With increased budgets and more...
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Making school schedules is something district and school leaders must do every year — but during COVID-19, that job has just gotten harder. We've created a set of COVID Comeback Models...
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Recently, there has been growing interest in adapting Return on Investment thinking to education. But most ROI analysis still misses a big opportunity. Education leaders need a new...
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In recent years, school districts have found themselves in turbulent waters. They face quickly rising academic standards, a greater focus on teacher effectiveness, rapidly changing...
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Researchers explored the effects of current school autonomy structures on Boston's public school operations and leadership, and looked at case studies from five other U.S. cities, drawing...
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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...
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School Design in Action is a new section of our website that features interactive portraits of schools that are optimizing resources for student success.
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The Professional Growth & Support Spending Calculator helps quantify all current spending aimed at improving teaching effectiveness. Part I provides worksheets to analyze total...
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The Professional Growth & Support System Self-Assessment helps school systems evaluate their current Professional Growth & Support strategy. The self-assessment is organized around the...
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In this publication, ERS expands the traditional definition of teacher Professional Development to Professional Growth & Support, which includes any use of people, time, and money that...
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Our series of School Budget Hold'em winning hands videos illustrates how to reach a target budget reduction while prioritizing different areas. This video shows one way to balance quality...
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This page contains links for the electronic materials to complement the Teacher Compensation Workshop. Additional information need for download is located on your Teacher Compensation...
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