Best Practices for Weighted Student Formula Budgeting

Transcription

1 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 Best Practices for Weighted Studet Formula Budgetig If we aggregate the best practices from every district profiled i this yearbook we ca imagie a ideal studet-based budgetig model. Best Practices for the Weighted Studet Formula 1. Redirect cetral office resources to the schools. Districts should redirect cetral office resources to support schools. Several districts icludig Oaklad, Hartford, New York ad Baltimore have sigificatly reduced costs at the cetral office ad put the moey ito school-level budgets. I Hartford s budget, 70 percet of available resources will be allocated to schools ad classrooms to support istructio. This cotrasts to less tha oe-half of resources spet i schools ad classrooms by the Hartford Public School District i The district redirected resources to the schools with a 20 percet reductio of cetral office expeses icludig the reductio of over 40 district-level positios. I 2008 Baltimore City Schools faced a $76.9 millio budget shortfall. I respose the fair studet fudig pla idetified $165 millio i cuts from the cetral office to cover the fudig shortfall ad redistributed approximately $88 millio i cetral office fuds to the schools. By the 2010 school year, Superitedet Aloso will have cut 489 jobs from the cetral office, re-directig 80 percet of the district s operatig budget to schools. 2. Use school-level academic plas to alig resources with achievemet goals. A cetral role of the school site coucil is to develop a specific pla to describe areas of focus for improvig studet achievemet ad how resources will be used toward achievig the goals i the academic pla. The Sait Paul Public School District s budget philosophy is that each school site s school comprehesive improvemet pla (SCIP) will drive the school budget process. Sa Fracisco demostrates the importace of usig a weighted studet formula i cojuctio with school-level academic plas that tie istructioal Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 139

2 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 strategies to budgets ad outlie specific academic goals for each school. The weighted studet formula i isolatio is just a fudig mechaism, but whe budgets are aliged with academic goals school leaders ca focus o how best to use school-level resources to raise studet achievemet. 3. Publish detailed school-level budgets. School-level budgets offer parets ad commuity members trasparecy to see how moey is spet at each idividual school. The best school-level budgets offer detailed data about studet populatios ad their specific characteristics ad how much moey each studet populatio geerates for the school. Good school-level budgets also report academic achievemet data. Hartford Public School District publishes very detailed school-level budgets that report the studet populatios at each school as well as the fuds geerated by each group of studets. The school-level budgets also iclude the school s performace data. I Housto Idepedet School District, the budgets report data broke dow by the studet sub-groups at each school ad show the weights ad fudig for each group of studets. I additio, HISD s school-level budgets also report studet achievemet data for each school. 4. Use foudatio grats to support small schools. Districts should give every school a foudatio grat to cover the basic admiistrative costs of ruig a school. This allows schools of every size to cover the basics ad it does ot work agaist small schools. It allows districts to cotiue to embrace small schools eve uder a system that fuds schools o a per-pupil basis. I Sa Fracisco the weighted studet formula gives each school a foudatio allocatio that covers the cost of a pricipal s salary ad a clerk s salary. I New York City all schools regardless of size or type receive a lump-sum foudatio grat of $225,000. The dollars are ot tagged to particular positios ad schools, ot cetral admiistratio, determie whether they eed more core admiistrative staff ad fewer teachers or the reverse. The foudatio grat also allows small schools to maitai a core admiistrative staff. 5. Charge schools actual salaries to icrease equity. New York, Hartford ad Oaklad demostrate that it is possible to achieve eve more equity by chargig schools for the actual cost of their teachers salaries rather tha each district s average salary. I Oaklad the district charged actual salaries to schools usig the ratioale that sice schools sped most of their budget o persoel costs, the decisio to use actual salaries i school budgets to calculate school-level costs would better address equity. Oaklad implemeted the use of actual salaries so that schools with less experieced teachers would have lower teacherrelated costs i their budgets ad could redirect this moey toward resources (e.g., professioal developmet) that would support ad help retai experieced teachers i schools servig larger percetages of high-poverty studets. 140 Reaso Foudatio reaso.org

3 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 New York City charges schools for the average of each school s teachers rather tha the school district average. The school-level average more accurately reflects the mix of teachers salaries at each idividual school ad allows pricipals to have more cotrol over the cost of the teachers at their idividual school. 6. Devolve district restricted fuds ito the weighted studet formula. School districts eed to reduce their ow restricted programs ad devolve those resources ito the studet-based budgetig formula. Hawaii has developed a good test for whether resources should be icluded i the studet-based budgetig formula. Hawaii s committee o weights has very specific criteria to determie whether fuds should be added to the WSF allocatio. The committee asks a series of questios based o very specific criteria. For example, i 2008 the Board added the Peer Educatio Program to the urestricted weighted fuds because all secodary studets i Hawaii should have Criteria for Fuds to Be Icluded i WSF Program fuds are recommeded for iclusio i WSF if the fuds: 1. Were provided to all schools 2. Were provided to all schools of a particular level (i.e., HS) 3. Could be distributed equitably by formula 4. Would provide greater flexibility to the school commuity 5. Were previously distributed i a maer that resulted i a iequity. access to the fuds. 7. Frequetly review the weighted formula I Hawaii the Committee o Weights presets a formal ad trasparet process for reviewig the weighted studet formula. This yearly review offers districts a formalized process to review discretioary versus odiscretioary fudig for idividual schools. I Hawaii the committee has icreased the amout of categorical fuds added to the WSF allocatio every year. 8. Coect studet weights to academic achievemet rather tha poverty. Districts should reward academic achievemet by coectig the weights to academic performace rather tha poverty, as Baltimore has. Low-scorig studets ad high-scorig studets geerate additioal reveue rather tha low-icome studets. I Baltimore the district weights both academic eed for studets that score basic (below grade level) ad academic eed advaced (above grade level) at $2,200. I 2009, sice performace outcomes wet up, the overall umber of studets who qualify for academic eed basic wet dow. O the other had, the umber of studets who qualify for the academic eed advaced wet up. The basic ad advaced weights demostrate how Baltimore s Superitedet Aloso promoted academic achievemet. I 2010 a smaller amout of ulocked dollars will be allocated toward the basic (lowerperformig) weight ad a larger amout of ulocked dollars will be shifted to the advaced weight. It is a positive outcome whe the amout of moey goig to lower scorig studets is shrikig ad the amout Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 141

4 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 of reveue goig to higher performig studets is growig based o higher overall achievemet. New York City has also fostered performace ad school improvemet by rewardig achievemet. For example, New York schools that ear both a A o their progress report ad the top score of well developed o their quality review are awarded additioal fudig. Schools ca sped the excellece rewards of approximately $30 per studet at their discretio o whatever programs or other schoolrelated expeses will best support their cotiued progress. 9. Use hold-harmless strategies to phase-i equitable school-level budgets. Most districts have a hold-harmless clause that trasitios schools to budget equity over two-five years. Poudre School District has established a safety et so that o school will lose more tha 20 percet of its curret budget. To offset that cost, o school will gai more tha 80 percet. 10. Allow schools discretio over purchasig of cetral office services. Give schools the resources i actual dollars to purchase cetral office services ad let them choose betwee competig support systems to decide which cetral office support fuctios are ecessary for each idividual school. Pilot schools show that idividual schools ca receive their portio of cetral office services i real dollars ad decide which services to purchase from the cetral office based o their idividual eeds. Belmot pilot schools receive access to cetral discretioary services ad have the ability to select the services or istead receive the per-pupil amout for the service added to their lump-sum budget. I New York City the Departmet of Educatio redirected $170 millio as ew Childre First Supplemetal Fuds to schools to purchase ewly orgaized school support services ad other goods, services ad staff that they determie help studets succeed. The $170 millio came from cuts to cetral ad regioal budgets. This brought to $230 millio the amout the DOE has cut from the cetral office ad set to schools sice 2006 to purchase support services at their ow local discretio. 11. Implemet weighted studet formula to help with erollmet fluctuatios. Studet-based budgetig ca icrease flexibility for budgetig durig chagig coditios, such as decreases or icreases i erollmet. Poudre School District demostrates that studet-based budgetig ca be a flexible ad trasparet tool for budgetig whe schools are faced with decliig erollmet. Rather tha schools losig etire teachig positios based o the staffig model whe fewer studets are erolled, istead the school loses the moey for the actual loss i erollmet ot a etire positio. This allows the school to be more flexible about how to hadle fiacial loss i the budgetig process. 142 Reaso Foudatio reaso.org

5 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 Best Practices for Accoutability 1. Use overall proficiecy, value-added measures ad movemet toward closig the achievemet gap to measure school progress. I 2008, Dever Public School District lauched a school performace framework to measure the progress of actual studets agaist themselves ad agaist peers from the etire state of Colorado. This metric ot oly esures that all studets move forward, it also measures ad compares growth year by year. About 60 percet of the framework is based o studet s growth ad the rest is based o overall proficiecy. Sa Fracisco also demostrates the eed to focus o the achievemet gap withi a school district. Its ew school quality, equity ad access matrix allows comparisos betwee schools with similar studet populatios ad provides a tool to examie egative ad positive treds toward closig the achievemet gap ad coect those treds with specific istructioal strategies ad budget decisios. Oaklad Uified School District requires schools to publish a score card that measures each school o three academic goals: Absolute Performace. How is the school performig agaist Adequate Yearly Progress Targets? Cohort Matched Studet Level Growth (value added). How is the school acceleratig growth for studets who have bee i the school over time (measured for both oe ad three years)? Closig the Achievemet Gap. Is the school closig the gap betwee school-wide performace ad that of the lowest performig subgroup? 2. Report school-level report cards with user-friedly ratig systems. I Dever, every public school, except those i their first year of operatio, is assiged oe of the followig accreditatio ratigs every September usig data collected durig the previous school year: distiguished, meets expectatios, accredited o watch or accredited o probatio. Ratigs affect how much support schools receive, corrective actio take ad compesatio eared by pricipals, assistat pricipals ad teachers. I New York City progress reports grade each school with a A, B, C, D or F to help parets uderstad how well their school is doig ad compare it to other, similar schools. These progress reports are the ceterpiece of the City s effort to arm educators with the iformatio ad authority they eed to lead their schools ad to hold them accoutable for studet outcomes. The reports also provide parets with detailed iformatio about school performace, both to hold their schools accoutable ad to iform family decisios. 3. Use performace-based pay as a icetive for school improvemet. Several districts have combied performace pay with studet-based budgetig to provide eve more icetive for teachers ad pricipals to raise studet achievemet with the resources at their discretio. Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 143

6 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 As part of the accoutability framework, Dever Public School District operates a groudbreakig teacher pay system called ProComp, alog with a pricipal compesatio system that rewards improved studet achievemet ad commitmets to work i hard-to-serve schools ad hard-to-staff assigmets. ProComp is a ie-year bargaied agreemet betwee the Dever Classroom Teachers Associatio ad Dever Public Schools that is desiged to lik teacher compesatio more directly with the missio ad goals of the district ad DCTA. I 2008 the Housto Idepedet School District implemeted a ew accoutability process called the ASPIRE (acceleratig studet progress ad icreasig results ad expectatios) model. This overarchig iitiative coects all of HISD s educatioal improvemet efforts ad ecompasses iovative techology solutios, professioal developmet ad commuicatios. ASPIRE s system of value-added aalysis helped HISD icrease studet achievemet ad reward those who help studets make strog academic progress. As oe of the largest performace-pay plas i the atio, i 2008 the ASPIRE Award Program recogized more tha 10,000 teachers ad other school persoel with more tha $23 millio i bouses. ad data systems ecessary to allow schools to use evidece from studet performace to iform their strategic plaig ad accoutability goals. The achievemet reportig ad iovatio system (ARIS), is a groudbreakig tool itroduced i 2007 to help teachers ad pricipals raise studet achievemet. As of 2008 it has bee available to all New York City classroom teachers. ARIS gives educators access i oe place to critical iformatio about their studets ragig from erollmet history, diagostic assessmet iformatio, credits accumulated toward graduatio ad test scores to special educatio status ad family cotact iformatio. ARIS combies this iformatio with a olie library of istructioal resources ad with collaboratio ad social etworkig tools that allow users to share ideas ad successes with other educators i their school ad across the City. 5. Give parets real-time olie access to iformatio about their studet s performace ad classroom assigmets. I Ciciati a olie program called Paret-Coect offers every paret i the district real-time access to their studet s progress icludig assigmets ad grades. Each classroom maitais a computer with Paret-Coect to allow parets access at the school. 4. Ivest i data systems that offer teachers ad pricipals oe-stop data-ceters for studet iformatio ad strategic plaig for academic goals. The New York City Departmet of Educatio has ivested i the techology 6. Close habitually low-performig schools ad redirect resources to expadig higherquality school optios. Hartford has employed a aggressive strategy of closig low-performig schools ad redirectig resources to 144 Reaso Foudatio reaso.org

7 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 higher quality ew schools. Dever demostrates that closig udererolled ad low-performig schools ca redirect scarce district resources to studets who previously were erolled i the closig schools ad that moey ca follow those studets ito ewer higherperformig schools. It also ca provide additioal resources to create ew high quality schools. Best Practices for School Choice 1. Embrace ope erollmet. Several districts icludig Sait Paul, New York City, Hartford ad Dever have all choice districts where studets ca eroll i ay school o a space-available basis ad schools that are oversubscribed use a lottery to allocate spaces. Sait Paul has a straightforward choice-based erollmet process. For elemetary schools, parets go through a applicatio process where the parets list their top three school choices for kidergarte. There is some preferece give to studets who live withi a attedace area of each school. Sait Paul Public School District also icludes several city-wide maget ad opeerollmet schools. It also has ope erollmet for middle ad high schools where studets list two choices o a applicatio. 2. Use techology to maage the school choice process ad create a olie erollmet process. Poudre School District implemeted a olie process for the school choice applicatios. The ew process provides parets the opportuity to complete ad submit their applicatio from the comfort of their ow home ad elimiates the eed to take the applicatio to the school ad/or schools where they are applyig. Other beefits of the olie system iclude providig parets the opportuity to apply for multiple schools with oe applicatio. Parets will receive a automatic cofirmatio umber that ca be prited ad kept o file for referece ad the first cosideratio lottery process will ow be automated. 3. Offer ope-erollmet for middle ad high school studets to start. Several districts started their opeerollmet systems by allowig older studets to choose betwee schools. This policy ca help high school studets select a school that better meets their iterests ad ultimately help to retai studets i secodary educatio. Best Practices for School Autoomy 1. Give pricipals discretio over 70 to 90 percet of a school district s operatig budget at the school level. Oaklad s stregth is the budgetig discretio it provides to schools as it cotiues to move larger amouts of urestricted fuds ad restricted fuds to the school level. For example, eve as Oaklad Uified is forced to make sigificat budget cuts because of decliig erollmet ad Califoria s budget crisis, the majority of reductios were made at the cetral office ad the district worked to protect the Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 145

8 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 urestricted fudig that goes to schools so that more tha 87 percet of the urestricted budget would go to schools i Pilot schools i Bosto ad Belmot offer pricipals discretio over the equivalet of 90 percet of resources because they give the schools the operatioal resources that are equal to the average operatioal fudig provided to all public schools i the district, o a per-pupil basis. The schools also receive a proportioal share of state ad federal categorical fuds, subject to applicable grat requiremets ad obligatios. 2. Negotiate flat cotracts with uios. Several districts demostrate that it is possible to egotiate with uios for a rage of cocessios that give pricipals more autoomy over school-level decisios that were previously costraied by collective bargaiig rules. I Bosto ad Belmot pilot schools, teachers are exempt from teacher uio cotract work rules, while still receivig uio salary, beefits ad accrual of seiority withi the district. Teachers volutarily choose to work at pilot schools. Whe hired, they sig what is called a elect-to-work agreemet, which stipulates the work coditios i the school for the comig school year. This agreemet is revisited ad revised aually. 3. Give pricipals discretio over persoel decisios. New York ad Dever have a ope market teacher hirig process where pricipals ca iterview multiple cadidates ad make decisios about which teachers will best fit with their schools. Most studet-based budgetig programs give schools discretio over hirig teachers at the frot ed of the process but they do ot give pricipals a alterative to trasfer teachers who are icompatible with the school model. Clark Couty School District s uio cotract has a provisio that details how empowermet schools ca deal with teachers that are icompatible with the school. The cotract states that the school empowermet team, i cojuctio with the school pricipal, may implemet a peer review model ad may remove ad replace a teacher deemed to be icompatible with the model established at the school. The pricipal ultimately has the authority to make staffig decisios. Best Practices for School-Level Maagemet Support 1. Set the level of district itervetio ad support based o studet performace. I 2009 Ciciati begis a ew iitiative i which schools will be grouped accordig to performace, with a progressio of services provided accordig to eed. High-performig schools will receive coachig oly by request, improvig schools will receive part-time coachig ad schools i eed of academic itervetio will receive itesive, prescriptive coachig. The district will create three turaroud teams, each cosistig of a pricipal ad two lead teachers, to work with the district s 16 lowest-performig 146 Reaso Foudatio reaso.org

9 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 elemetary schools. Hartford demostrates the value of a clear accoutability matrix that evaluates ad sets the level of autoomy for each school based o studet performace. Low-performig schools face itesive itervetio from cetral office teams ad evetual closure if performace does ot improve. 2. Create pricipal academies to trai pricipals to be etrepreeurial leaders. May districts that have implemeted studet-based budgetig from New York to Dever provide itesive professioal developmet ad traiig for pricipals usig idepedet pricipal academies that are developed by oprofits, uiversities or through other district parterships. These pricipal academies are desiged to trai ad empower pricipals to be strog etrepreeurial ad istructioal leaders. 3. Provide extra district support durig the budgetig cycle. May districts offer itesive support durig the budget cycle with hotlies for pricipals or specific oe-o-oes with budget aalysts to provide extra support durig the moths pricipals are developig their budgets. achievemet. The cetral office would improve support to schools by creatig school etworks. Uder this pla, 14 etworks would each serve up to 15 schools ad each would be composed of four people two i the area of academics, oe i special educatio ad studet supports ad oe i operatios such as fiace, facilities, etc. The etworks would assume ad improve the school support or liaiso fuctios ow performed by the cetral office. They would sped most of their time i schools ad they would offer schools oe-stop shoppig solutios, keepig them from havig to avigate the cetral office s myriad departmets. To measure ad esure the quality of this school support, school pricipals would evaluate the etworks ad provide these evaluatios to district leadership. Oaklad offers a strog program of assistace to pricipals ad school staff from cetral office persoel. Pricipals receive support from the district s assistat superitedets. I additio, Oaklad school pricipals ca also hire operatios support coaches who help to create budgets ad serve as liaisos to the district office. 4. Redesig cetral office support. I Baltimore i 2010 the cetral office is restructurig the way it provides support to pricipals ad schools. As schools assume more resposibility the admiistrative role of the district cetral office is becomig more targeted to focus o three key fuctios: guidig schools, supportig schools ad holdig schools accoutable for studet State Recommedatios for Weighted Studet Formula The weighted studet formula report, Fud the Child, by the Thomas B. Fordham Istitute offers solid state-level recommedatios arguig that states are i the best positio to advace weighted studet formula. This yearbook cocurs with the Fordham recommedatios ad argues for four essetial state-level policies Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 147

10 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 that could icrease weighted studet formula budgetig at the local level. 1. States should cetralize educatio fudig ad redistribute it based o a weighted studet formula. States that provide a larger share of educatio fudig ca compel school districts to distribute resources more equitably at the local level. The state of Hawaii implemeted weighted studet formula because it had oe cetralized fudig stream. Whe states distribute equitable fudig betwee school districts based o studet characteristics, it ecourages districts to attach fudig to studets. The states ca require districts to pass o the weighted allocatios to the school level. For example, i New Jersey i 2008, after years of court-drive, ad-hoc approaches to school fudig, Goveror Corzie pushed through a weighted studet formula school fiacig reform to create a equitable ad predictable mechaism to distribute fudig to all childre i New Jersey based o idividual studet characteristics. Goveror Corzie s weighted studet fudig formula will be equitably applied to all school districts ad charter schools begiig i fiscal year However, this weighted studet formula does ot yet require idividual school districts to have fudig follow studets ito schools. It does ot offer icetives for pricipal autoomy over resources or school choice. However, this is a promisig first step, which would make it easier for New Jersey to implemet state legislatio to require districts to allocate fudig based o a weighted studet formula as a ext step. May states, such as Califoria ad Michiga, have already moved toward cetralizig school fudig. 2. States should allocate fudig to schools based o a weighted studet formula. States should pass specific legislatio that makes state moey follow the child, accordig to eed. The state s role should be to esure that districts allocate state ad federal fuds accordig to weighted studet fudig priciples. States should require districts to pass through as much state ad federal fudig as possible to schools, based o the state s WSF model. I essece, states could ecourage more robust weighted studet formula by fudig every child as if he or she was erolled i a charter school ad the fudig followed the child ito the school. The Fordham Foudatio also argues that states should ecourage districts to allocate local fudig accordig to weighted studet formula priciples. It argues that states could require districts to allocate local fudig based o WSF priciples i order to be eligible to receive their share of state fudig. 3. States should ivest i budgetig software ad require districts to report school-level data. School districts could beefit greatly from better budgetig systems. If fudig were available for states to implemet a stadard budgetig system, it would alleviate the fears of may districts to migrate to a ew budgetig process. The Oaklad Uified School District, for example, had to develop its budgets durig the first year usig Microsoft Excel spreadsheets because the district s existig fiace system could ot support the ew process. A ew state budgetig system would eed to break dow reveues ad expeses o a site-by-site basis. States should require districts to report curret spedig at the school level based o actual dollars rather tha district averages. Havig 148 Reaso Foudatio reaso.org

11 Weighted Studet Formula Yearbook 2009 trasparet budget iformatio is the first step toward weighted studet formula ad will poit out ay ier-district iequities for each school district. 4. States should resist categorical programs ad restricted fudig. Califoria s has a $40 billio budget crisis that has had a real impact o local school budgets. To help mitigate this impact, the state gave school districts a waiver which gives districts discretio over most categorical programs. This demostrates the eed that local districts have for cotrol of their resources, especially durig budget deficits. As districts receive urestricted fudig, they ca pass this moey to schools as real dollars rather tha programs. For example, i Oaklad Uified, district admiistrators report that the large umber of categorical programs at state ad federal levels ihibits iovatio ad reiforces a compliace-orieted metality. Reaso Foudatio reaso.org 149