Even the best teacher residency programs must find a way to fund their work. In Design for Impact, Public Impact and the National Center for Teacher Residencies define financial sustainability and show how to implement four strategies to help teacher residencies get in and stay in the black.
School Funding
Teacher Compensation
One area in which Public Impact has focused on helping education leaders reallocate resources in is teacher compensation, devising policies and practical systems to pay teachers more. To learn more about our work on this topic, see:
- The Opportunity Culture “Pay Teachers More” web page. Public Impact is working with districts, schools, and teachers nationally to select new school models in which teachers can earn substantially more for “extending the reach” to more students—within recurring budgets.
- Our Teacher and Leader Compensation web page for other reports on changing teacher compensation to contribute to teacher and student success.
Smarter Funding, Better Outcomes: Georgia’s Roadmap for K-12 Finance Reform
This report, prepared for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, explains how Georgia funds its schools, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of its current funding model, and proposes ways to improve it to propel student learning forward. The report leads to three recommendations: allocating K-12 education funding through a student-based funding model, incentivizing innovation that supports student performance, and building a comprehensive financial data system.
Funding a Better Education: Conclusions from the First Three Years of Student-Based Budgeting in Hartford
This report, prepared for Achieve Hartford!, aims to determine the impact the first three years of student-based budgeting (SBB) have had on funding equity, transparency, and principals’ sense of autonomy in Hartford Public Schools. Using six years of finance data and interviews with nine principals who led schools both before and after the district’s implementation of SBB, the report concludes that SBB is off to a strong start in Hartford. The report also notes that the district has faced several implementation challenges, which if addressed, could make SBB more impactful.
Student-Based Budgeting: A Better Way to Fund Students and Performance
In a two-part policy report, Partnership for Learning partnered with Public Impact to assess the state of school finance in Washington and explore the benefits student-based budgeting (SBB) could have for the state. Part one analyzes how Washington currently allocates funding, explains how the current funding model falls short, and describes how SBB would be a better alternative. Part two includes an extensive analysis of the state’s most recent school finance data and the impact an SBB model could have on district-level funding. The site also includes a simulator that allows users to develop their own SBB formula.
Fund the Student: A Plan to Fix Rhode Island’s Broken Public School Finance System
In 2009, a bi-partisan group of urban and suburban municipal leaders asked Public Impact to study Rhode Island’s K-12 funding system. In collaboration with Martin West, assistant professor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Public Impact found the state’s current system to be inequitable and too inflexible to meet the state’s evolving needs. The report calls for a new finance policy based on student need and outlines four principles to reform education finance in the Ocean State.
The Tab: How Connecticut Can Fix its Dysfunctional Education Spending System
In this report for Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), Public Impact authors Bryan C. Hassel and Daniela Doyle trace Connecticut’s current flow of public school funding and recommend a reformed system that would create strong incentives to boost student achievement. As ConnCAN summarizes in its November 2009 release of the report, The Tab “offers a detailed reform plan grounded in three fundamental changes: 1) Revamp the state’s funding formula so that money follows children based on their needs, 2) Shine a bright light on education finance by creating a comprehensive and easily accessible data system on school funding, and 3) Remove fiscal barriers that stand in the way of creating great schools for everyone.”
