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.
"Do Now, Build Toward" (DNBT) is a sustainable approach to transformation that builds on research, incorporates practical limitations, and uses a community-driven, iterative framework.
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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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Continuous improvement ROI is a way to ensure effective and equitable allocation of ESSER funds even when the timeline of spend, and our system’s capacity, are limited
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Across the country, roughly one in five students with an IEP spend most of their time receiving individualized services and supports in a “self-contained” or “substantially separate”...
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Read the Briefing
In turnaround schools, traditional approaches to school improvement (and some say, even the recent seven billion dollar federal investment in school improvement)...
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Originally published online by the Aspen Institute.
To help principals and school leadership teams see how social and emotional learning can enhance academic performance, and how...
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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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In this working paper, we've identified many - often hidden - "dimensions of equity," and we explain how each links to student outcomes, identify typical sources of inequities within...
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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.
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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...
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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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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...
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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....
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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.
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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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Ten years ago, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) had 65,000 students. Today it has fewer than 45,000. The severe enrollment decline was a wake-up call for the district. Starting in 2007, DCPS...
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Hear from:
Sam Franklin, Executive Director of the Office of Teacher Effectiveness, Pittsburgh Public Schools
Brian Pick, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, D.C. Public Schools
Alyssa...
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The School System 20/20 infographic lets you see the possibilities for system transformation through ERS' seven-strategy framework. It illustrates the challenges to reallocating people,...
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Millions of education dollars are trapped each year. At this time of continued budget shortfalls when every dollar spent on education must yield maximum returns in student...
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This Getting Started guide is part of a series of publications designed to support your efforts to improve resource use in your district. Use this overview for a quick introduction to...
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ERS Director Regis Shields presented at EdWeek’s webinar, “Creating Effective Teacher Professional Development in Tough Economic Times.” To turn tough times into opportunity, districts...
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In the Fall of 2006, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) to study the use of resources in the district and create priority recommendations...
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In 2003–2004, ERS and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform analyzed how Baltimore City Public School System utilizes its professional development resources and examined the alignment...
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This project began as a result of a concern about how to strengthen the professional development of teachers and leaders throughout the Chicago Public Schools. Leaders of the district as...
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Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) is now four years into implementing Student’s First, a powerful strategic plan for improving student performance. This report, requested by Superintendent...
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ERS with New American Schools, primary support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, has partnered with one or two reform-minded districts each year for three years to analyze spending on...
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ERS supported Boston Public Schools and the Boston Plan for Excellence-Boston Annenberg Challenge in conducting an in-depth analysis of the district’s existing professional development...
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