Weighted Student Funding Overview

Rethinking Resources for Student Success

Weighted Student Funding OverviewMay 8, 2012

Boston Public Schools Budget Hearing

Weighted Student Funding (WSF) RETHINKING RESOURCES FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

Education Resource Strategies (ERS)

is a non-profit organization that has worked closely with multiple large districts across the country (including Rochester, Baltimore, and Boston) that have implemented or are in the process of implementing WSF. This is part of broader work with leaders of urban public school systems to rethink the use of district and school-level resources, supporting strategies for improved instruction and performance.

Visit us at www.erstrategies.org

Education Resource Strategies 3

Why do districts decide to implement WSF?

• EQUITY: Students are funded equitably regardless of which school they attend.

• TRANSPARENCY: A WSF formula makes it clear to all relevant stakeholders how much money schools receive and how the allocation process works.• SCHOOL EMPOWERMENT: Schools have both the autonomy and the responsibility to design their schools to best meet their student needs.

• INNOVATION: Principals have the freedom to organize their school in whatever way they believe will best serve their students.

• ACCOUNTABILITY: Every school controls its own budget and school leaders are responsible for resource decisions and related outcomes.


Here are a few important terms that are often used when discussing the WSF formula

WSF Formula: The formula that the district will use to allocate out the WSF Pool to schools – the formula is calculated using the WSF Weights and Student Enrollment data.

BASE WEIGHT: Weight that every student receives

NEED WEIGHTS: Additional $s provided to meet the needs of certain student populations. Examples include:

GRADE-LEVELPERFORMANCE (HIGH and LOW)SPECIAL EDUCATIONENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERSMOBILITYSCHOOL TYPE

FOUNDATION: Fixed amount given to all schools (or just to small schools) to help cover baseline “fixed” costs


Two of the most important decisions that districts make in developing their WSF system are:

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What resources are “unlocked” under WSF – a.k.a., Where will budgetary control be given to schools?

What student characteristics will the WSF formula weight? And how much should the weights be?


1. When should a resource be unlocked?

Does school control of this resource fit within the district’s VISION OF THE PRINCIPAL’S ROLE?

Is this resource a key CENTRAL ROLE such that devolving it impacts the district’s ability to fulfill a vital function?

Is this resource a district-wide priority that the district wants each school/student to have CONSISTENT access to it?

Is this resource needed INFREQUENTLY OR UNPREDICTABLY, making it hard for schools to budget for it?

Does this resource have REQUIRED INPUT/OUTPUT such that the district is accountable for it to external source?

Does this resource have ECONOMIES OF SCALE such that the savings for centralizing outweighs desire of school control?


2. Which weights should be used?

• What type of ADDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES do students with these characteristics need (i.e., what do we expect schools to do with the extra dollars)?

• Is this characteristic both SUFFICIENT AND UNIQUE within the district’s overall population to merit weighting?

• Does the district have the ability to TRACK AND PROJECT ENROLLMENTS for this characteristic?

• Does this student characteristic CORRELATE WITH ANY OTHER CHARACTERISTIC such that we might be double-weighting?


Districts choose to weight characteristics that make sense given their academic strategy and context

ff Boston BaltimoreCincinnati

* Denver Hartford Houston NYC Oakland SF Seattle*

Foundation Amount

Grade

Perf-High

Perf-Low

Poverty

SPED

ELL

Other

* Note: WSF currently suspended due to declining revenue


1. Does the district believe that additional resources are required to appropriately serve this student characteristic?

For example: Poverty (FRL) students

Low-income students may need both additional instructional and social-emotional support to achieve at the same level as their peers

• What type of additional support services do students with these characteristics need?

Extra instructional support?

Extra socio-emotional support?

Other types of support?


2. Is this student characteristic sufficient and unique within the district’s overall population to merit weighting?


Some urban districts are 90%+ FRL - almost all students would be eligible for this weight – it may make more sense to build the additional support into the base weight for all students

• Are there a sufficient number of students with this characteristic in the district such that it makes sense to weight them?

• Is this student characteristic so pervasive across the district such that almost all students would be weighted?


3. Does the district have the ability to track and project enrollments for this student characteristic?


Most districts should be able to reasonably track and project FRL status based on historical enrollment and demographic shifts

• Since WSF budgets are developed in the spring preceding the school year, the district can only weight characteristics for which it can reasonably track and predict accurate enrollments

• Otherwise, doing mid-year adjustments will be a painful process for schools


4. Does this student characteristic correlate with any other characteristic such that we might be double-weighting?


Some research indicate that there may be strong correlation between FRL status and low academic performance, particularly at the elementary school grade levels

• Weights are additive (i.e., students receive all the weights that they are eligible for)

• So if a student is already receiving additional support for being X, do they need more resources for being Y?

• Or do those characteristics have different needs that require different resources?


When thinking about how much to weight characteristics in the WSF formula – the questions to ask are:

How much does the district currently spend to serve this characteristic?

How much would the district “ideally” want to spend?

Final Weight

Ideal Program Design

Current Spending

Range of the Possible Weights

Does this weight make sense from an EQUITY stand-point?

Is this weight based on RESEARCH-DRIVEN best practices?


Districts with WSF make very different decisions when it comes to designing their WSF systems and developing their WSF formulas, but for WSF to work well, all districts must address the following three issues:

AUTONOMYDistrict policies and practices are changed to permit school leaders to use resources strategically

CAPACITY Central office provides training and support to help school leaders use resources strategically

ACCOUNTABILITYSchool leaders are held accountable for student-outcomes and fiscal responsibility in return for increased control

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Acco

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Cap

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Strategic Use of School-

Level Resources