Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) invited 10 districts to participate in a community of practice designed to increase understanding of how to braid and blend federal funds. District teams composed of principals, superintendents, business managers, and other district leaders participated in four 90-minute virtual sessions. The purpose of…

Since March 2021, school district leaders have been developing and implementing plans to spend their "ARP dollars," that is, the historic $122 billion allocated from the American Rescue Plan to help districts recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The money, also referred to as ESSER funds (Elementary and Secondary School…

A school district budget is more than numbers. It is a record of a district?s past decisions and a spending plan for its future. It shows a district?s priorities whether they have been clearly articulated or simply occurred by default. And it is a communications document that can tell constituents a lot about the district?s priorities and goals. A…

This Practical Guide is intended to help educators and others interested in education promote the value of public education to the nation. Research and polling suggests that Americans share deeply held beliefs and values about public schools. Americans believe that one of the strengths of public schools is that they provide concrete benefits for…

With the advent of large interest in school-based management came the task of inventing a different type of budgeting system--one that delegated the many tasks of developing a budget, expending the allocated funds, and controlling those expenditures in a way that did not exceed the allocation to the site level. This book explores the various means…

This guide is a product of a study conducted as part of a broader effort by the Department of Education to identify the causes of rising college costs and find and disseminate ways to contain these costs. In institutions of higher education most costs are manageable and can be contained without jeopardizing key services. This can be achieved by…