Equitable Student Funding (01.28.11)
Posted by Catherine Wilson on 3/17/2011 12:00:00 PM
Beth Mascitti-Miller, Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
Building great schools, great curriculum, and great teachers and leaders are the essential pillars that support student success. The products of our efforts become masterful when they converge to improve experiences and outcomes for our district's students and families.
Creating great schools, curriculum, and educators requires critical decision making with each child's needs and best interests in mind. Equitable Student Funding is the architectural framework upon which these decisions can be strategically made. Equitable Student Funding stimulates building-based and student-centered decision making, promotes equitable distribution of resources with students' personal and academic needs in mind, and better aligns resources to effectively impact student achievement.
Highly effective decision making and action planning is dependent upon informed and knowledgeable practitioners. Building a common language requires shared vision. With this in mind, guidance documents have been developed to support the work in schools and quest to fully educate each child. The guidance documents will help develop a common understanding about expectations of the district and state in developing a school plan and budget. The guidance documents will continue to be written as needs and changes arise to ensure schools have the most recent and accurate information to make the best decisions for their students.
Creating a framework that supports transparency and equity is at the center of the Equitable Student Funding design. Empowering schools to make instructional decisions with the flexibility to determine the allocation of resources, supported by guidance documents, will ideally lead to a better educational experience for all students.
Additional structures are being made available to support schools as we move in this new direction. We hope that you will find these useful as we work together to improve achievement.
