The distribution of state funding to school districts has a tremendous impact on student learning opportunities. State leaders juggle different priorities, tradeoffs and incentives when designing funding formulas with the goal of ensuring every student has the learning opportunities to succeed. This toolkit offers a strategic guide for reforming…

Policymakers commonly assert that Broad Access Institutions (BAIs) cannot be "all things to all people" when cutting their funding. BAIs were founded with comprehensive missions to generate postsecondary access through low barriers for admission and affordable tuition and promote student-centeredness through institutional foci on…

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper,…

When Governor Jay Inslee (D) closed the public and private schools of Washington State's 1.1 million students on March 13, 2020, state education leaders made several key decisions that influenced the state's attempt to deliver education services during the COVID-19 crisis. These decisions reflected the political priorities of the large, unwieldy,…

This 2016 document is designed to provide state Part C staff with guidance on using fiscal data to analyze and revise their allocation methodology. Allocation methodology is the process -- including practices, strategies, procedures, and policies -- used by Part C state staff to equitably distribute funds to meet the needs of the system, including…

Driven by economic and educational imperatives, public policymakers, higher education leaders, and philanthropic and advocacy groups are mobilizing aggressive national and state campaigns to bolster college completion. Campaigns to improve student success are particularly concerned about the performance of the nation's community colleges. In…

Driven by economic and educational imperatives, public policymakers, higher education leaders, and philanthropic and advocacy groups are mobilizing aggressive national and state campaigns to bolster college completion. Campaigns to improve student success are particularly concerned about the performance of the nation's community colleges. In…

On March 25-26, 2010, a cadre of urban education leaders gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for the "Fair Student Funding Summit," a conference that brought together districts that use weighted student funding (WSF) as an approach for allocating dollars to schools. Convened by Education Resource Strategies (ERS) and hosted by Baltimore City…

The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires states to document whether or not adult education service providers are improving the quality of their instructional services. To reward effective providers, a number of states have adopted performance-based funding (PBF)…

In response to a legislative inquiry, a study was conducted by the Washington State Board for Community College Education (SBCCE) to determine the adequacy of policies and laws governing the state funding classification of community college courses. During the study, the SBCCE examined the extent to which the colleges were financing courses with a…