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Actionable tools and resources to help district leaders invest ESSER funds with a "Do Now, Build Toward" approach for sustainable transformation.
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An illustration of what the teacher experience looks like now for many teachers, and what it could look like instead by making teaching a more dynamic, rewarding, collaborative, and...
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Learn how to become an “equity detective”: a leader who actively looks for and takes action to address structural and systemic inequities in schools and school systems.
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We’re halfway through ESSER’s funding timeline, but leaders still have time to create lasting change. This ESSER Halftime Review Guide will help help facilitate productive conversations,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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We’ve created a set of COVID Comeback Models that include possible student groups, schedules, staff roles and more for district and school leaders planning for a safe shift to hybrid...
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As a new superintendent - whether it's your first time in that role or just new to a community- you'll face a tremendous number of challenges. The key is knowing where to begin.
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All school and district leaders want to grow their new teachers into effective educators who stay at their schools - yet most feel constrained by limited budgets. But it is possible to...
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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...
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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.
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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,...
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SBB is a funding system whereby dollars follow students based on student need, and can help increase funding transparency, equity, and flexibility.
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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...
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We studied 4 school systems that redesigned their approach to PL and have seen inspiring student growth. Their models are highly "connected" to what teachers do every day.
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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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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...
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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...
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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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This short video was created to offer advice to principals considering implementing a student-based budgeting system, also known as weighted-student funding.
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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...
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Before schools can systematically implement a district’s vision for excellent school practices, district leadership must clearly articulate exactly what school strategies they believe...
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In 2006, Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District made a bold move. It began to strategically staff a subset of its lowest-performing schools with its district’s best principals. Five years...
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