District Resource Allocation
Typically, local, state and federal money flows to districts, which then use a formula to divvy up resources across their schools. A growing number of districts use a student-based allocation formula (or SBA) to distribute at least some portion of their total funds. In SBA, districts allocate dollars based on the needs of designated student types in a school—such as students who are English language learners—toward better matching a school’s resources to a school’s needs based on the mix of students in the building. But our research on SBA implementation shows that even districts moving toward SBA often have ingrained practices, such as subsidies for small schools or special programs, that can make allocations less equitable and transparent.
In this blog post, Marguerite Roza discusses the new U.S. Department of Education guidance on monitoring the “supplement-not-supplant” (SNS) provision of Title I. SNS specifies that federal Title I funds for schools with high concentrations of poverty must be used to augment state and local funding, rather than offset it. Where the Obama Administration attempted (and failed) to require...
Just like the years leading up to 2008, the last few years have yielded stronger growth in funds for schooling. And just like in 2008, there are signs of troubleahead. While we can’t predict how an economic downturn will affect every district, we can anticipate some big-picture trends, and in doing so potentially help insulate school systems from needless...
On November 20, 2018 Marguerite Roza hosted a webinar for district and community leaders interested in learning more about student based allocation (SBA) models (a.k.a. WSF or weighted student funding). She shared how student based allocation models work, why districts use SBA, what formulas look like and how to get started. Read More...