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 State Leaders

Winter 2021-22

How To Use K-12 COVID Relief Funds Strategically

Tools, resources, and 7 guiding principles to help districts, schools, and states with ESSER planning and implementation More »

COVID-19 Equity District Leaders State Leaders Toolkits
Aug 31, 2021

Investing ESSER Funds Equitably

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t impacted all students in the same ways. For many students - including students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, students with disabilities, and... More »

Publications Equity District Leaders State Leaders Leadership School Support & Accountability
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
April 14, 2021

States Start Here

Childrens' learning has been massively disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing the need for more opportunities for differentiated, high-quality learning, stronger relationships... More »

Publications COVID-19 School Design State Leaders States
January 13, 2021

The Cost of COVID

The full financial impact of COVID-19 is now unfolding for school districts, and it is a story of much more than PPE, hand sanitizer, and laptops. Looking ahead at the bigger picture,... More »

Publications COVID-19 District Leaders Funding & Portfolio State Leaders States
February 18, 2020

ERS Briefing: Opportunities Abound

Read the Briefing The 2019 Student Opportunity Act creates a once-in-a-generation moment for Massachusetts students: the Commonwealth has committed $1.5 billion dollars over seven... More »

Publications Funding & Portfolio State Leaders
October 2, 2019

State Education Funding: The Poverty Equation

Originally published on FutureEd. The correlation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement doesn't just apply to individual students—the concentration of poverty in... More »

Publications Equity State Leaders
ERS’ Work in California: Ensuring Every Child Is Ready for Tomorrow

State Leaders States
February 12, 2019

Seizing the Moment for Transformation—Whether Facing School Budget Cuts or Adding Back Revenue

Nine ways school systems can empower schools and restructure resources for student success More »

District Leaders Funding & Portfolio State Leaders Teaching
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
November 08, 2018

Resource Equity: A Primer for State Boards of Education

At the 2018 NASBE annual conference, Karen Hawley Miles presented on Strategies to Foster Resource Equity to an audience of about 100 state leaders More »

Equity State Leaders States
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 »

Presentations District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Student-Based Budgeting
September 10, 2018

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 2018

Low Teacher Salaries 101

In 40 states, the real value of teacher salaries declined from 2010 to 2015. How we got here, why it matters, and how we can pay teachers fairly and strategically. More »

Compensation District Leaders State Leaders
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 07, 2018

Finding a Path Toward Equity

With the passage of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013, California began the process of revolutionizing its school funding system. The LCFF aimed to make the California... More »

Publications Equity Funding & Portfolio 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
February 07, 2017

From Financial Transparency to Equity: Part 1

This brief summarizes the insights from a working group that sought to answer: How might we allocate resources to achieve the best outcomes for kids? More »

Publications ESSA District Leaders Equity State Leaders States
December 09, 2016

ESSA Financial Reporting: Implications for Resource Equity

Webinar led by ERS and EdCounsel More »

ESSA Presentations Funding & Portfolio State Leaders States
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 2016

Transform Now

School System must better meet the needs of all students. And they can. But to succeed, we can't just do more of the same. We need to transform. Building off of One Vision, Seven... More »

Publications District Leaders School Leaders State Leaders
May 2016

Widening the View

We interview nearly 20 district and county leaders across California and make a set of proposals to ensure the Local Control Funding Formula succeeds in increasing achievement for all... More »

Publications Funding & Portfolio State Leaders
February 2, 2017

A Vision for Partnership Between Districts and States

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,... More »

Publications District Leaders State Leaders States
May 28, 2015

Fulfilling the Promise of LCFF

In 2013 California adopted a new funding formula that includes a significant reinvestment in public education after years of budget cuts. The new law, called the Local Control Funding... More »

Publications Funding & Portfolio State Leaders
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
December 2014

Spinning Straw into Gold

K–12 education resources are often allocated non-strategically, with schools spending time and money on activities that have little relationship to student outcomes. States can help... More »

Publications State Leaders School Support & Accountability States

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