Education Law Center's "Making the Grade" is an annual overview of the condition of school finance in the states. Using the most recently available data from the 2021-2022 school year, the report ranks and grades each state on three measures to answer the key question: How fair is school funding in your state? The three fairness measures…

This paper reports on an analysis, using a comparative case study design, of the degree to which policy actors use evidence in designing performance-funding policies in Colorado and Texas. The analysis reveals that features of demanders of information--including their prior exposure to research, their attitudes toward evidence, and, in the case of…

Each state participates in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which prescribes certain types of activities and organizational structures for states to direct federal investments in workforce development. Participation in WIOA requires a state to create a workforce investment board with duties such as developing, implementing and…

California policymakers have established the expectation that all public school students should have access to a broad course of study, in classes where instruction is consistent with the state's content standards. Further, the state holds schools and school districts accountable for their ability to ensure that all students achieve at a specified…

With the advent of outcomes-based funding policies, state policymakers are increasingly committed to basing public college and university funding on how institutions perform on valued measures such as program progress and degree completion. This rising emphasis is considered here in the historical context of three earlier state funding approaches:…

Background/Context: Performance funding finances public higher education institutions based on outcomes such as retention, course and degree completion, and job placement rather than inputs such as enrollments. One of the mysteries of state performance funding for higher education is that despite great interest in it for over 30 years, only half…

This bulletin reports on a study examining the various formulas and patterns of support for 2-year colleges and reviewing the proportion of this support which is received from the State, from the district, and from student sources. The study reviews the practices followed in the support of 2-year colleges in each State. It reveals the fact that…