Related Publications
- Oct 2020
This report examines and offers recommendations to resolve Indiana's student funding inequities.
- Nov 2018
These essays rethink foundational aspects of the current education system and offer new ideas to shift the lens from schools to students.
- Nov 2018
This essay explores what it would take to ensure that personalized and weighted funding follows students across multiple learning experiences.
- Jun 2018
This brief on the four-day school week answers common questions about its scope and trends and points out what is not yet known about the impacts on students and districts.
- Jan 2018
This report examines why charter school growth in the San Francisco Bay Area has slowed dramatically and offers solutions for cities nationwide to encourage the development of new high-quality schools.
- Dec 2017
This paper reviews state policies on providing charter schools with facilities and recommends better incentives for districts to share space.
- Nov 2017
This analysis examines 18 cities offering public school choice to determine whether 1) their education systems are continuously improving, 2) all their students have equitable access to high-quality schools, and 3) their strategies are rooted in the community.
- Oct 2017
This brief examines a promising new “third way” approach to school improvement and provides guidance for district and charter leaders and policymakers considering partnership schools.
- Oct 2017
This guide will help district and community leaders understand the benefits and risks of adopting a shorter school week.
- Sep 2017
CRPE’s report urges districts, charters, and states to work together in new ways to address the financial challenges associated with declining district enrollment.
- Jun 2017
This study examines how much public transportation passes in Denver can improve equitable access to the city's highest-quality K-12 schools.
- Apr 2017
State policy should encourage and empower school district innovation and improvement strategies.
- Oct 2016
This analysis of trends across portfolio districts shows where cities are making progress on strategy implementation and where they are getting bogged down.
- Apr 2016
This paper takes the first systematic look at costs associated with implementing personalized learning schools, how leaders of these schools choose to allocate their funds, and what it might take to make personalized learning financially sustainable on public dollars.
- Jan 2016
Author Steven Hodas shares his experiences working with the New York Department of Education to foster innovative practices and develop more nimble procurement procedures.
- Jul 2015
This report was published by the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho as part of their research on the four-day school week in rural Idaho.
- May 2015
How ingrained district operating systems practices can interfere with policy goals and school-level initiative, and why we need to retool the DOS to enable dynamic problem-solving.
- May 2015
Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this fourth volume of the SEA of the Future details how rural schools and districts are innovative in how they deliver services, recruit teachers, use technology, and serve special populations.
- Apr 2015
This paper argues that district-wide systems changes are necessary to encourage and free up schools to innovate, in order to implement personalized learning at scale and meet the challenges of Common Core.
- Apr 2015
This paper explains why personalized high schools are hard to get and keep, and shows how we can make them more broadly available through changes in policy and philanthropic investments.
- Mar 2015
This brief presents five clear principles on which Title I formulas should be based and progress measured.
- Jan 2015
This report outlines the problems districts face in procuring innovative goods and services, shows how other sectors have modernized procurement processes, and recommends ways to reform district procurement.
- Jan 2015
This report was published by the Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho as part of their research on the challenges of rural education.
- Jan 2015
This paper looks at new efforts to ensure special education functions effectively in New Orleans' full-choice public education landscape.
- Jun 2014
This report examines federal, state, and district barriers that principals say hinder their ability to make innovative school improvements.
- May 2014
Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, the essays in this third volume of the SEA of the Future describe a "productivity infrastructure" intended to provide a foundation for the work of SEAs.
- May 2014
This fiscal analysis finds that early difficulties forecasting enrollment and revenue can undermine implementation of personalized-learning models that blend computer-based and teacher-led instruction.
- Dec 2013
This study explores the primary obstacles that inhibit state education agencies from better supporting school and district improvement.
- Nov 2013
Edited by Betheny Gross and Ashley Jochim, this volume begins a conversation with state education leaders about productivity.
- May 2013
This year's edition focuses on growth and innovation and pushes charter school leaders to consider whether they are fully using their flexibility and autonomy on behalf of students.
- May 2013
Editor Robin Lake introduces the key areas explored in this year's volume of Hopes, Fears, & Reality.
- May 2013
Suzanne Simburg and Marguerite Roza lay out the cost savings possible if blended learning were adopted by all U.S. public elementary schools, not just charter schools.
- Jan 2013
This brief explains the need for student-based allocation to enable student choice and portable funding across schools within districts.
- Dec 2012
Cuts to state support for higher education have prompted some universities to raise tuition, admit more out-of-state students, and increase enrollment to close budget gaps. This analysis compares these three strategies in terms of the relative magnitude needed to close a gap in state funds and the extent to which they contribute to degree production for state students.
- Dec 2012
This new book from Paul Hill and colleagues explains the underlying idea of the portfolio strategy.
- Dec 2012
Public universities across the country are shifting more spots to nonresidents (who pay higher tuitions) in order to plug budget gaps. This case study examines admissions data at the University of Washington in order to quantify the effect on admissions standards for residents versus nonresidents.
- Dec 2012
Using wage and staffing data from states, this paper projects the financial and staffing implications of one innovative school model (the Rocketship lab rotation) to highlight potential impacts on the schooling workforce and total per-student spending.
- Dec 2012
This study uses data from Seattle Public Schools to explore actual salary changes amidst rapid changes in economic context and the effect of the recession on teacher pay.
- Dec 2012
Consideration of whether smaller classes are preferable to larger ones requires some recognition of the opportunity costs involved. This brief provides a state-by-state context by computing the dollars at stake in marginally raising the number of students per class.
- Nov 2012
This working paper examines how state finance policies that protect districts from declining or low enrollments drive up spending and inhibit adaptation.
- Nov 2012
This report identifies three fiscal requirements of federal education programs that stand in the way of promoting innovation in education. The authors recommend modifications that would break down barriers to innovation as well as promote smarter, fairer uses of taxpayer money to support public education.
- Nov 2012
This report offers the first detailed look into the financial implications for public schools embracing student-centered learning models.
- Nov 2012
This report offers the first detailed look into the financial implications for public schools embracing student-centered learning models.
- Sep 2012
This Rapid Response brief examines the real numbers on the Chicago teachers contract costs.
- Sep 2012
This Rapid Response brief looks at how Chicago teacher salaries compare in regional and national contexts.
- Jul 2012
This Center for American Progress brief dissects the nation’s sizeable investment in master’s bumps as a means of highlighting policy obstacles to a more smartly differentiated compensation approach.
- Mar 2012
In 2009, the federal government committed over $3 billion to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools. This report looks at the results of a field study of the first-year implementation of those grants in Washington State, where researchers found that districts and schools are using the grants for only marginal change.
- Jan 2012
In this chapter Parker Baxter argues that by reimagining the distribution of funding, facilities, and other district assets without regard to whether a school is a district school or a charter school, districts can strike a unique and powerful bargain with charter schools: shared resources and shared responsibility.
- Jan 2012
The 6th annual edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality provides a clear roadmap for school districts and charter schools interested in working together to improve education options. The report explains the risks and technical challenges behind charter-district collaboration and provides powerful examples of how they can be overcome.
- Dec 2011
This paper illustrates the flaws in the existing structure for making resource allocation decisions in public education.
- Sep 2011
This essay was written for the PIE Network 5th Annual Policy Summit, September 2011. The authors argue that state education agencies need to shift from their role of compliance monitor to performance manager—a shift most are ill-positioned for. This essay outlines the known factors constraining efforts to transform SEAs, including limited resources, short timeline, and rapidly changing parameters.
- Aug 2011
This report examines whether State Education Agencies (SEAs) have the capacity they need to fulfill their expanding roles in turning around schools in need of improvement.
- Jun 2011
This study identifies key functions performed by state education agencies, estimates the relative level of resources devoted to each activity, and explores ways SEAs could free up resources to build school improvement capacity.
- Mar 2011
This brief examines why policies known as “last in, first out” may disproportionately affect schools receiving federal School Improvement Grants.
- Mar 2011
Washington State is set to spend nearly $100 million in the next two years on pay bonuses for teachers who receive national board certification. This brief explores whether this investment makes a difference in improving the state's teaching force and encouraging the most capable teachers to work in high-poverty schools.
- Jan 2011
In April 2010, the Center on Reinventing Public Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation convened a group of researchers and financial analysts to discuss how to better understand the financing and sustainability of CMOs. This report summarizes the conversation and main themes that emerged from the meeting.
- Dec 2010
This brief describes how a different method of supplying benefits to employees might work for districts: cafeteria plans. While typical school district plans offer a one-size-fits-all package of benefits to employees, cafeteria plans allow employees to customize their benefits within a given cost.
- Oct 2010
This Education Next forum addresses what we know about the strengths and frailties of CMOs, what the future holds, and what promising alternatives might be.
- Aug 2010
In this brief, CRPE analysts find that most of Washington's largest districts spend less per math or science teacher than for teachers in other subjects.
- Jul 2010
Improvements in productivity in other sectors may hold important lessons for understanding how the education system can become more efficient.
- May 2010
Looking at the 15 largest districts in California, this analysis finds that teachers at risk of layoff are concentrated in schools with more poor and minority students, concluding that "last in, first out" policies disproportionately affect these students and their schools.
- Apr 2010
This book explains how varied funding streams can prevent schools from delivering academic services that mesh with their stated priorities and offers concrete prescriptions for reform.
- Mar 2010
This brief explores trends in K–12 education jobs—those funded through the stimulus and by other means—to answer the question of what role ARRA played in overall education employment.
- Mar 2010
The CRPE founder isn’t afraid to challenge existing institutions when they fail to serve kids, and respects the evidence, no matter what it says. A look at Hill's legacy.
- Feb 2010
This brief demonstrates how, contrary to common worry, closing Title I's "comparability provision" loophole would not force districts to mandatorily reassign teachers.
- Jan 2010
This analysis explores how state education spending has changed or will change given the application of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.
- Jan 2010
Calculating the per unit costs of what schools or districts deliver can provide the best insight into the implications of all that spending. This paper was published in the edited volume, "Stretching the School Dollar: How Schools and Districts Can Save Money While Serving Students Best."
- Dec 2009
This analysis argues that in the current fiscal climate, districts should rethink automatically paying teachers for master's degrees, and consider how money could instead be channeled into compensation in ways that lead to improved student performance.
- Jul 2009
This analysis shows that school districts faced with large budget gaps could avoid some or all teacher layoffs by rolling back salaries.
- Jul 2009
This analysis argues that in the current fiscal climate, districts should rethink automatically paying teachers for master's degrees, and consider how money could instead be channeled into compensation in ways that lead to improved student performance.
- Jun 2009
This analysis examines ways in which per-pupil spending in high schools varies by subject and course level, and demonstrates how such fiscal metrics can reveal the financial implications of the inner workings of individual schools.
- May 2009
This brief presents rank order projections of changes in state K-12 education spending amidst state revenue gaps and the addition of ARRA funds.
- Feb 2009
This brief makes early projections of of what state budget cuts might mean for education spending and job losses.
- Feb 2009
This paper adds to the nascent literature on teacher pensions by exploring two questions: How well do teachers understand their current pension plans? And, what do they think about alternative plan structures?
- Feb 2009
In this brief, Marguerite Roza explains why K-12 school districts that lay off personnel according to seniority cause disproportionate damage to their programs and students than if layoffs were determined on a seniority-neutral basis.
- Jan 2009
In this commentary, the authors argue that the economic crisis could ultimately strengthen public education if leaders make tough resource decisions that can produce greater efficiencies.
- Nov 2008
This report is the conclusion of an extensive six-year national study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors criticize school finance systems for being outmoded and not linked to student results and offer a four-part action plan for overhauling today's school finance systems.
- Oct 2008
This report summarizes the work of of the National Working Group on Funding Student Learning, a group of eleven top school finance scholars. The report both describes the problems with state school finance systems and offers solutions.
- Oct 2008
This article examines a few methods that assess the relationship between educational investment and educational outcome, then focuses on a Return on Investment (ROI) model to assess the efficiency of an urban district.
- Sep 2008
This is a pre-print version of an article that was published in ASBO International's School Business Affairs magazine. The article summarizes a five year research study that examined the linkages between how money is spent on K-12 education and whether students learn.
- Aug 2008
This paper explores the value teachers place on financial incentives and how much of a salary incentive is needed to attract new teachers to high-needs schools.
- Aug 2008
In this commentary from The Denver Post, Marguerite Roza explores the phenomenon of Baumol's disease in education—the tendency for costs to rise even as outputs stay the same.
- Aug 2008
This paper offers empirical evidence on the size of incentives that might be needed to make teaching a relatively more attractive occupation for people with technical skills or high academic aptitude.
- Jul 2008
This commentary from the News & Observer argues that North Carolina needs to fundamentally reform how the state funds its public schools.
- Jul 2008
This report provides a framework for policymakers and practitioners to identify the key cost components involved in expanding the school day.
- Jun 2008
This paper briefly summarizes three School Finance Redesign Project teacher compensation studies that begin to help build the evidence base for teacher pay reform.
- Jun 2008
This report demonstrates in greater detail than ever before how America’s methods of school finance work against a single-minded focus on student learning.
- Jun 2008
This paper explores why the current Title I program's comparability provision falls so short of what is needed, and the reasons for modifying it.
- May 2008
This paper finds that federal, state, and local policies designed to distribute education funds systematically provide more money to higher-income students and wealthier schools.
- May 2008
A companion piece to Allocation Anatomy: How District Policies That Deploy Resources Can Support (or Undermine) District Reform Strategies, this research brief summarizes the report's key findings and recommendations.
- May 2008
This paper explores the nature of micro-budgeting decisions and shows how they support or hamper district reform strategies. It also provides a framework to help district leaders recognize different kinds of allocations.
- May 2008
This paper identifies tactics districts can use to influence the factors that shape the supply and quality of providers of autonomous schools in thin markets.
- Apr 2008
What are the options for charter school authorizers or entities with similar responsibilities who want to preserve assets when closing low-performing schools? This study suggests that authorizers rarely try to salvage these assets.
- Apr 2008
The paper looks at the evolution of California’s largely state-controlled funding system and makes suggestions for policymakers to improve their education finance system.
- Apr 2008
This Education Week article outlines changes to the education finance system that are needed in order to bring about new and more productive uses of existing funds.
- Feb 2008
New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource decisions in Ohio.
- Feb 2008
This op ed urges the Washington's Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force to move to change our education finance system to support the state's education goals.
- Jan 2008
New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource decisions in Washington State.
- Jan 2008
This Interim Report explains the study questions, research strategies, and early findings of the School Finance Redesign Project.
- Dec 2007
This article first appeared in the Seattle Times, December 19, 2007.
- Nov 2007
This brief touches on the experiences of urban school districts as they sought to close schools. It offers insight into the critical questions districts encountered and different paths chosen during the process.
- Oct 2007
This study takes an in-depth look at funding differences between and within Texas school districts and finds that funding decisions within districts currently have a greater impact on a school’s resources than inequalities in access to revenues across school districts.
- Aug 2007
This report analyzes why replicating successful charter schools has been tougher and more costly than expected for both for-profit and nonprofit charter management organizations (EMOs and CMOs).
- Aug 2007
Policymakers and researchers alike have expressed concern about a teacher quality gap between schools with affluent student populations and the more disadvantaged ones. This study uses teacher and school-level data from the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey combined with census-level information about community characteristics to build hedonic wage models for both public and private schools.
- Aug 2007
This paper describes research designed to shed light on how teachers feel about different pay and incentive reforms.
- Aug 2007
This paper shows that none of the available methods for estimating what it would cost to reach high standards for all children is adequate to the task.
- Jul 2007
This paper is a companion piece to the District Resource Allocation Modeler (DREAM) tool developed by Education Resource Strategies.
- Jul 2007
This study examines resource allocation patterns across elementary schools and how these patterns differ depending, in part, on various levels of autonomy over resources at the school level.
- Jul 2007
In this working paper, Michael Kirst suggests that a productive education system would focus relatively greater resources on out-of-school interventions, especially for the most disadvantaged children. He argues that such interventions could help teachers and students focus on instruction and actually increase student learning.
- Jul 2007
This policy analysis tool, created by by Education Resource Strategies, helps districts deliberate about how to use funds effectively.
- May 2007
This paper shows how districts can assess the efficiency of their own resource use compared to similar districts and judge whether non-instructional expenditures are excessive.
- May 2007
When school boards enter contracts with teachers unions, they determine the use of nearly half of all the funds available to public education. In this paper Julia Koppich looks at an important source of resource allocation decisions—teacher collective bargaining agreements.
- Apr 2007
This paper explores ways districts can reduce the costs (in terms of lost school productivity and lost training investments) of teacher turnover.
- Apr 2007
This report analyzes the incentives under which public school teachers and leaders work. It concludes that there are few rewards for producing high levels of student achievement and many rewards for work that does not promote student learning.
- Apr 2007
New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource decisions in North Carolina.
- Mar 2007
In this paper, Diana Sharp and John Bransford show how the learning sciences can be applied to school finance.
- Mar 2007
This report demonstrates that there are many promising alternative ways to allocate and use funds under Title I, the federal government's largest K-12 funding program.
- Mar 2007
New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource decisions in Texas.
- Mar 2007
This paper examines the categorical program strategy by which the federal government and most states try to target extra funds for particular purposes.
- Mar 2007
How might money be used in a more productive system? This working paper imagines a public educational system in which it is possible to link benefits received with costs borne.
- Mar 2007
This working paper shows that many districts have accelerated student learning by reallocating funds to emphasize targeted assistance to students, fewer non-instructional burdens on teachers, greater use of instructional technology, coaching for teachers, and class size reduction targeted on core classes only.
- Mar 2007
This working paper paper suggests how a performance-driven system would allocate funds, monitor performance, search for more productive models of instruction, and replace less effective schools and programs.
- Mar 2007
This paper explores how schools can seek “continuous improvement.”
- Mar 2007
This paper asks whether significant changes in public education finance are politically feasible.
- Mar 2007
This paper proposes the creation and use of school spending profiles as a way to communicate more complete and comparable school spending information.
- Jan 2007
This op ed discusses why it is important to understand how much money is spent on different school-district policies, including those dictated by common teacher-contract provisions.
- Dec 2006
This article shows how a regulated market in education would work and how one could be created.
- Dec 2006
This report, published by Education Sector, examines common teacher contract provisions, estimates total spending on these provisions, examines studies on their effects on student achievement, and explores how these “frozen assets” might be put to different use.
- Nov 2006
Plaintiffs in adequacy lawsuits presume that school districts know how to use additional funds effectively. This chapter, from Courting Failure: How School Finance Lawsuits Exploit Judges' Good Intentions and Harm our Children, examines that presumption.
- Oct 2006
As attention shifts to how districts allocate resources to schools, student weighted allocation has emerged as an alternative to traditional staff-based allocation policies. This article examines how the shift to student-weighted allocation affected the pattern of resource distribution within 2 districts.
- Jul 2006
In this article, Paul Hill argues that mayors who seek to reform their schools need to untangle the tendrils of school district accounting practices, and he warns that mayors who attempt large-scale school reform without first attempting to understand their district's financial and personnel practices do so at their peril.
- Jun 2006
This paper investigates the effects of implementing CSR models on student achievement.
- Dec 2005
This chapter of Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2005 explores the details of how to compare charter school and traditional school funding.
- Aug 2005
This brief summarizes the report Strengthening Title I To Help High-Poverty Schools: How Title I Funds Fit Into District Allocation which argues that the nation's main program for educating the disadvantaged, Title I, is hampered by loopholes that prevent it from fulfilling its mission.
- Aug 2005
Drawing on data from five large school districts, this report reveals that the nation's main program for educating the disadvantaged, Title I, is hampered by loopholes that prevent it from fulfilling its mission.
- Aug 2005
In this article, originally published in the Washington Post, CRPE's Paul Hill and Marguerite Roza argue that district accounting practices and the of tendency of experienced teachers to choose wealthier schools result in Title I dollars are not being spent on the neediest students.
- Aug 2005
This is the first in a series of working papers on ways people working for the disadvantaged might use evidence about within-district spending inequalities.
- Aug 2005
This paper argues that decentralizing decisionmaking authority to schools is a reform worthy of a new look, despite the perceived failure of earlier school-based management (SBM) efforts to improve student performance.
- Jun 2005
This working paper presents a principal-agent model in the context of public schools to help explain the factors that affect district decisions about merit pay.
- Mar 2005
This brief examines small high school costs in Denver and Seattle, analyzing each layer of district expenditures in order to get a better look at the price tag for small schools in comparison to others.
- Feb 2005
This paper, prepared for The Aspen Institute Congressional Program, February, 2005 explores the causes of school level spending variations.
- Jan 2005
This report provides a practical discussion of what is required to develop a school district management guide, along with an actual guide built on evidence-based indicators.
- Oct 2004
This working paper examines the potential fiscal impact of charter schools in Washington State, at both the state and local levels.
- Oct 2004
Edited by James Harvey and Paul T. Hill, this book identifies roles for foundations and civic groups in defining strategies for big-city school reform, and ensuring that promised changes are implemented. This is the third and final book in a series on big city school reform initiated by the Brookings Institution.
A Cost Allocation Model for Shared District Resources: A Means for Comparing Spending Across Schools
Sep 2004Under current budgeting practices it is difficult to assess how resources are distributed between schools and whether every school is afforded the same opportunities to meet its educational goals. This paper addresses one key driver of spending variation between schools: shared district resources.
- Feb 2004
This paper, published by Brookings Institution Press, reports the results of an original study of district spending at the school level. It shows that teacher cost averaging drives significant amounts of money out of schools serving poorer students and toward better-off schools.
- Oct 2003
This report, published by The Phi Delta Kappan, traces Cincinnati Public Schools's process of moving to a system of student based budgeting: funding children rather than staff members, and weighting the funding according to schools and students' needs.
- Sep 2003
A number of states and localities are now considering creating voucher programs. This paper focuses on the administrative costs of these programs.
- Jul 2003
This report suggests that even with the economic slowdown and the sense of relief from a pending teacher shortage, districts will continue to struggle to get and keep good teachers unless they make dramatic changes in the ways they recruit teachers.
- Apr 2003
This Education Next article addresses how problems within the public education system particularly affect urban children.
- Jan 2003
This report finds that although some districts and areas are experiencing difficulties finding good school principals, there are far more candidates interested in assuming school leadership roles than there are principal vacancies to fill.
- Jan 2003
This research brief relates to a CRPE report that finds, despite widespread publicity about a shortage of school principals, there are far more candidates certified to be principals than there are principal vacancies to fill.
- Aug 2002
Many foundations have put funds into urban school reform. The paper suggests that foundation giving needs to be backed up by a clear theory of change and that foundation officials need to know whether the districts in which they plan to work or are already working match the foundation's interests.
- May 2002
This paper looks at five trends in education and what they imply about the kinds of buildings and spaces districts will need for tomorrow's schools.
- May 2002
This paper presents the first results of a series of studies on within-district spending patterns. It provides an overview of some early analysis of variations in spending among schools within three districts.
- Oct 2000
This report examines the first-year finances of Massachusetts charter schools.
- Jan 2000
This volume is the second in a trilogy of books designed to describe the politics of reform in urban school systems and clarify reform options available to mayors and other community leaders who want to improve school performance dramatically. It Takes a City develops lessons from the reform experiences in six American cities which have made concerted attempts to improve their public schools: Boston, Memphis, New York City District #2, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Seattle.