State education finance systems play a fundamental role in providing the resources that schools and districts need to ensure student success. But modernizing and improving these systems is often complicated and can take years. Learning from their efforts to revamp education finance systems, Bellwether has found five common conditions that pave the…

Beginning with the 2020/21 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) began an ongoing effort to collect and analyze literacy screening assessment data from schools and districts participating in certain state grants to inform improvement efforts. Grantee schools and districts that provide literacy…

In the 2020/21 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) began an ongoing effort to collect and analyze literacy screening assessment data from schools and districts participating in certain state grants to inform improvement efforts. Grantee schools and districts that provide literacy screening…

Beginning with the 2020/21 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) began an ongoing effort to collect and analyze early literacy screening assessment data from schools and districts participating in certain state grants to inform improvement efforts. Outcome data suggest that the current educational…

As state-funded Pre-K programs in elementary schools continue to grow, elementary principals are increasingly responsible for supporting, supervising, and leading these programs. Therefore, examining elementary principals' early childhood leadership competencies and the factors influencing them may help understand and improve their experiences as…

In the United States, K-12 school finance is largely controlled by the states. Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds are distributed based on 51 different configurations of formulas, rules, and regulations to over 13,000 districts that vary in terms of the students they serve, their ability to raise revenue locally, and many…

In the 2020-2021 school year, more than 25 million children and youth -- roughly half of all elementary and secondary students in the United States -- attended schools in school districts that lacked dedicated funding to identify and support students experiencing homelessness. This significant funding gap increases the likelihood that many…

California recently committed to making prekindergarten (PreK) universal through the expansion of transitional kindergarten (TK) and other state-funded programs. Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, TK enrollment doubled, from about 75,000 to over 151,000 children. Approximately 59% of eligible 4-year-olds enrolled in TK in 2023-24. Across publicly funded…

This paper asks whether increasing public school funding can be an effective long-run crime-prevention strategy in the U.S. Specifically, we examine the effect of increases in funding early in children's lives on the likelihood that they are arrested as adults. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in public school funding, leveraging two…

The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to research how a high-quality, state-funded preschool program academically prepared at-risk students for kindergarten in a large public school district in southeastern Virginia. The school district has over 20 elementary schools with seven of the schools housing Virginia's high-quality,…

The prevalence of educator shortages has long been a topic of research and policy discussions in Illinois. Across multiple years, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS) have collected data and reported on the magnitude, severity, and impact of shortages statewide. Prior…

The 2022 Legislature increased funding for specific types of school staff in the prototypical school funding model, which determines the state funding allocations for schools. The legislation also required that funding provided to schools for physical, social, and emotional support staff (PSES staff) be spent on those staff. This report includes…

After a white supremacists' rally which fomented terror and death in Charlottesville, VA, a group of local educators came together to reflect on what happened and determine what they could do to push for racial justice in their community. "Reframing the Narrative" (RtN) was created, a years-long grant-funded project to produce and…

State school finance formula cause funding inadequacy, allocative inefficiency, and educational resource equity gaps. Legislative and court-ordered remedies have failed to solve the disparities among schools and districts. This book's ground-breaking innovation shows how to shift the public education finance paradigm to fund K-12 public education…

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic (COVID-19), Congress passed three relief acts within a 1-year period that provided more than $276 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19, including $5.5 billion for the Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) program. The purpose…