School districts and state education systems across the country are in the midst of an increasingly challenging fiscal environment. In many states, funding for K-12 education remains below pre-recession levels in what has been called a "punishing decade for school funding" (Leachman et al., 2017), despite efforts in recent years to…

Funding for California schools has improved rapidly in recent years but remains insufficient to meet educational goals and address the needs of students, particularly given California's high cost of living. Now, school districts face flat or declining revenues and rapidly growing student academic and social-emotional needs due to COVID-19.…

To address the increased needs of students and schools resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has enacted a series of three relief and stimulus bills -- the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), and the American Rescue Plan…

In 2017, the Center on School Turnaround at WestEd published the "Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement: A Systems Framework" [see ED584107] a framework to assist states, districts, and schools to improve student achievement in the lowest-performing schools. The framework immediately garnered national attention by outlining four…

School systems are currently faced with critical recovery needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders must decide how to allocate nearly $200 billion of federal funding, which has the potential to significantly impact efforts to accelerate learning and provide student well-being supports, especially for students who have been…

School finance reform has become a key component for transforming public schools in the United States. Over the last decade, a growing number of districts have turned to an approach known by different names--student-based budgeting, weighted student funding and fair student funding, among others--in which budgets are allocated to schools in…

The economic recession has had a profound effect on the ability of state and local governments to provide essential services to their communities--especially education. Stories about increased class sizes, personnel layoffs, and dwindling support for programs outside core classroom instruction have flooded newspapers around the country. Despite…