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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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
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
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 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
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 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 Equity District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
October 3, 2016

Two-Way Conversations

How first-year superintendents are using data to build political capital that enables system change More »

Publications District Leaders Leadership
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
August 02, 2016

Resource Check Webinar

Dr. Shawn Wightman of Marysville Public Schools talks about how he used Resource Check to create his strategic plan as a new superintendent. More »

Videos District Leaders Leadership
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
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
November 2015

A New Vision of Partnership Between Districts and States [Video]

In this video, school district leaders from New York State share their plans for reallocating resources to meet student needs, and their vision for the state to help them succeed. More »

Videos States
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
April 2015

Back from the Brink: A Case Study of Lawrence Public Schools

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.... More »

Publications District Leaders School Leaders School Design Teaching Turnaround
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
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
June 3, 2014

The Path Forward

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... More »

Videos District Leaders 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
April 2013

School Budget Hold'em Video: Balancing Quality with Big Savings

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... More »

Videos Presentations Funding & Portfolio School Leaders
April 01, 2013

How to Facilitate a School Budget Hold’em Session

Education Resource Strategies recently hosted a webinar on how to play the budget trade-off game called School Budget Hold'em. The game lets district leaders, and anyone involved in the... More »

Presentations Videos District Leaders Funding & Portfolio
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 14, 2013

Turnaround Case Studies

“Turnaround Case Studies” is an analysis of strategies to turn around low-performing schools undertaken by six large urban districts and four education management organizations. These... More »

Presentations District Leaders School Leaders Turnaround

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