District Management Journal
This issue of District Management Journal is focused on resource allocation, with particular emphasis on transforming perspectives and aligning incentives, teamwork, and leadership so that a school district can work in concert toward its strategic objectives. Our Spotlight article shares strategies for building support for tough budget decisions, detailing nine specific steps you can take to align values and build buy-in for resource allocation decisions that go beyond simply balancing the budget to actually raising achievement.
Also in this issue:
Interview: Aurora Public Schools (CO) Superintendent John Barry discusses how he has successfully improved student outcomes in the face of daunting budgetary challenges and specifically addresses the change in culture that was required for this achievement.
Case Study: A multiyear budget crisis hardly seems like an opportune time to launch a comprehensive student improvement effort, but for the leaders of the School District of Lancaster (PA), it seemed to be exactly the right time. This case study explores how, amid drastic state budget cuts, they confronted the daunting task of doing more with less, and successfully concentrated efforts and declining resources on four key initiatives to transform student outcomes.
Inside DMGroup: Special education consumes a large and growing part of school district budgets and sadly remains an area of frustration for many. Here, we share a preview of a Fordham Institute report, "Boosting the Quality and Efficiency of Special Education".
