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.

ESSER Hold'em for Districts

ESSER Hold'em for Districts

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Scheduling and Staffing Strategy Guides

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Tools Funding & Portfolio Standards & Instructional Resources Take Action

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 5, 2018

Bridging the Budget Gap and Accelerating Student Learning in Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD)

The ERS Resource Map for LAUSD analyzes resource allocation across the district, with a special emphasis on distribution of funding; teacher compensation, strategic retention, and... More »

Presentations District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
October 2017

Budget Hold’em for Districts

Budget Hold'em for Districts is more than a game, it’s an interactive exploration of the thoughtful trade-offs school administrators have to make in these challenging budget times. More »

Tools District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
August 15, 2017

Professional Learning Diagnostic Tool

How can your school system better connect professional learning to the everyday work of teaching—and to a systemwide strategy for student success? We studied four school systems that... More »

Tools District Leaders Professional Learning School Leaders Teaching
August 01, 2017

School Finance Packet for National Council of State Legislators (NCSL) Annual Meeting

State legislators face ever-increasing challenges around school finance—scarce revenues, lawsuits, new mandated reporting, and so on. These resources will demystify some of these complex... More »

Tools District Leaders States
June 20, 2017

Informing Equity

This report is a deep look into K-12 spending and resource allocation in charter and district-run schools in Oakland, comparing them across three dimensions: student need, resource... More »

Publications Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
June 14, 2017

Checklist: Creating a Strategic Master Schedule

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... More »

Tools School Leaders School Design
Education Resource Strategies

School Check

This school assessment tool is based on resource strategies and principles from “The Strategic School: Making the Most of People, Time, and Money” by Karen Hawley Miles and Stephen Frank.... More »

Tools School Leaders School Design Teaching
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 27, 2017

Budget Hold'em for Schools

Hold’em is an ERS tool that’s helped more than 10,000 education leaders better understand the kind of trade-offs that are possible to improve districts and schools while staying within... More »

Tools School Leaders School Design
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 Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
Education Resource Strategies

Teacher Compensation Calculator

Explore your options for designing a more effective teacher compensation system within your existing district budget. More »

Tools Compensation District Leaders Teaching
June 21, 2016

The TDP Toolkit

If you're unfamiliar with the Talent Decision Planner, visit the "Building a Talent Decision Map" to learn more. You must be signed in to your ERS Account to access this tool. More »

Tools District Leaders Professional Learning Teaching
April 21, 2016

Shared-Content Teaching Teams: Best Practices Template

Effective shared-content teams reduce teacher workload, lowering the planning burden on any individual. They also reduce the expertise burden on each individual: every teacher’s plan... More »

Tools School Leaders School Design Teaching
March 31, 2016

Checklist: Creating a Strategic Budget Process

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... More »

Tools District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
March 28, 2016

School Designer

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,... More »

Tools District Leaders School Leaders School Design
January 11, 2016

Checklist: Creating Strategic Teacher Leadership Roles

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... More »

Tools District Leaders Professional Learning Teaching
July 22, 2015

Making Dollars Work for Students

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... More »

Videos District Leaders Funding & Portfolio School Design
May 29, 2015

Spending in Philadelphia Schools

This PowerPoint presentation summarizes the findings from Education Resource Strategies in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). We partnered with SDP in the 2014-2015 school year to... More »

Presentations Funding & Portfolio
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
May 2015

Data Decisions Brief #1: Prioritizing 9th Grade Math

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... More »

Publications District Leaders School Leaders Teaching Standards & Instructional Resources
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
November 2014

Tools for California Districts

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... More »

Tools District Leaders School Leaders
June 2017

School Scheduling Tools

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... More »

Tools School Leaders School Design
October 2014

Return on Investment in Education

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... More »

Publications District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Leadership
June 2014

The New Education CFO

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... More »

Publications District Leaders Funding & Portfolio Leadership
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
May 2013

Professional Growth & Support Spending Calculator

The Professional Growth & Support Spending Calculator helps quantify all current spending aimed at improving teaching effectiveness. Part I provides worksheets to analyze total... More »

Tools Funding & Portfolio Professional Learning School Leaders Teaching

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