Dollars and Sense? An Analysis of District Improvement Plans' Budget Allocations

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Federal-, State-, and District-Level School Reform: Choice, Finance, and Leadership

Abstract

This study focuses on the budget allocations in 10 district plans to begin to identify and explain patterns in districts’ adoption of different types of policy instruments in response to a state funded intervention aimed at improving student achievement and closing opportunity and performance gaps in its lowest performing schools. We find that reform expenditures were concentrated on academics with lower proportions associated with culture-climate, and talent, and operations. Thus, districts appeared to prioritize issues positioned closer to the instructional core, in comparison to talent and operations which bolster system-level changes. This paper contributes to the education policy literature by taking seriously the costs devoted to state reform priorities and to specific instruments for school and district improvement.

Authors

• Jennie Weiner, University of Connecticut

• Sarah L. Woulfin, University of Connecticut

• Alexandra Lamb, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Morgaen L. Donaldson, University of Connecticut - Storrs