Project Activities
Development of the SSFR will include: (a) developing and supporting a student-need-based funding formula; (b) establishing a viable accountability structure; (c) creating workable incentive structures for reallocating teachers that are acceptable to the wide range of stakeholders (e.g., board members and employee associations); (d) identifying ways of achieving maximum flexibility from existing state and federal funding programs; and (e) introducing the competitive pressures associated with family and student choice. The AIR/PLP team will combine surveys, interviews, and critical incident techniques as well as quantitative methods to explore changes in the patterns of resource allocation, student outcomes, attitudes, and perspectives of key constituencies associated with implementation of the SSFR model.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The study will take place in three school districts, the Los Angeles Unified School District, Twin Rivers, and the Pasadena Unified School District. A sample of pilot schools in each district, totaling 20 schools, will also be studied.
Sample
This study will analyze data on the leadership teams from the school districts and the pilot schools. The schools serve large numbers of students that have been identified as needing extra services, such as English language learners, students with disabilities, and academically at risk students.
Intervention
There are six core reform strategies that are part of the intervention: (1) need-based funding of schools; (2) school autonomy and accountability; (3) school choice; (4) incentives for improving the distribution of effective teachers; (5) service-economy model for purchasing services; and (6) participatory decision making.
Research design and methods
Development will take place through an iterative data collection process. The feedback process for the iterative development process involves: (1) the algorithm for weighting categories of student needs, (2) the adequacy of budgetary and requirements information to users at district levels and school levels, and (3) the user-friendliness of systems and visual displays. The pilot study will include interview data and student outcome data collected from both treatment and control schools and other indicators of feasibility and improvement from just the treatment schools.
Control condition
The control condition will be “business as usual” for the comparison schools.
Key measures
While the focus of data collection efforts will be on evaluating intervention components, changes over time will be examined with the following measures: patterns of resource allocation, school-level language arts and math scale scores on the California Standardized Tests, and perspectives of key stakeholders and constituents.
Data analytic strategy
Descriptive and correlational analyses conducted throughout the study will be augmented by comparative interrupted time-series analyses in the final year.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: Interim products include a resource allocation formula, computerized district and school level data management systems, and fidelity of implementation measures. The final product will be a fully developed and pilot-tested needs-based funding model with policies and tools for addressing decision making and accountability regarding how funds are used. Peer reviewed publications describing the SSFR model and the findings regarding its implementation will also be produced.
Nongovernment report, issue brief, or practice guide
Haxton, C.L., Chambers, J. G., Manship, K., Cruz, L., and O'Neil, C. (2012). Perspectives of Central Office Staff, Principals, Teachers, and School Site Councils on Resource Allocation and SSFR Implementation In 2010-11 (Twin Rivers Unified School District). Washington, DC: American Institute for Research.
** This project was submitted to and funded under Education Policy, Finance, and Systems in FY 2010.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Jim Brown
This project endeavors to provide an infrastructure with an integrated collection of policies, procedures and tools—including (computerized) enhanced data management information— for decentralized needs-based resource management. Researchers will work with district partners to assess what works and what does not to iteratively build a structure and procedures that can be both formal and flexible, and can eventually be tested rigorously. The project expands on an existing project, the Strategic School Funding for Results (SSFR), which was carried out by the American Institutes for Research and Pivot Learning Partners working in partnership with three large, urban California school districts with funding by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The outcome of the project will be a fully developed SSFR intervention, together with the identification of factors that affect its implementation.
Note: This project's research and design has changed to include working primarily with the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
