Make the most of school district budgets to deliver the best for students
With growing student needs and constrained budgets, school districts must focus on their top priorities and understand which programs work, for which students, and at what cost.
When initiatives, programs, and resources are aligned with a district’s strategic priorities, leaders can maximize the impact of their limited time and funding. To support this effort, we have developed PRISM—a comprehensive service that equips districts with the knowledge, tools and processes to make smart, financially responsible decisions that maximize impact for students.
PRISM includes:
A comprehensive district-wide initiatives inventory
An in-depth Academic Return on Investment (Academic-ROI) analysis for selected initiatives
Participation at the Academic-ROI Institute
Staffing review* (part of PRISM Plus)
Benefits of the PRISM service:
Gain clear insights into how your team is currently using resources
Identify opportunities to reallocate and save resources
Establish a clear path to invest strategically in programs that drive strong student outcomes
Make more objective, data-informed decisions
We help districts catalog all programs and initiatives by collecting key data—including design, outcomes, and costs—to evaluate their effectiveness and alignment with strategic objectives. This process identifies data gaps and misaligned or ineffective programs, enabling the reallocation of funds toward the most impactful initiatives.
We work with districts to identify up to three important initiatives for in-depth Academic-ROI analysis. Our team conducts the analyses using our 10-step process, and draws insights. At the end of this step, we provide a report outlining each initiative’s effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, alignment with expected outcomes, and action plans for how to keep it, adjust it, fix it, or eliminate it.
To build internal capacity for evaluating program effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, we encourage districts to attend our Academic-ROI Institute. Over a period of multiple months, district teams will build the capacity to integrate data into resource allocation decisions and ensure resources are being deployed for maximum impact.
85% of the district budget is spent on staffing. For districts looking to get a clear and accurate understanding of current staffing levels and optimize their spending, we identify opportunities to staff more efficiently and strategically, based on student needs, enrollment levels and your strategic goals. *Part of PRISM Plus.
In approximately 6-9 months, the district will understand their programs and initiatives, how they are working, for which students, at what cost, and will be able to make impactful decisions on initiatives across the district.
An Initiatives Inventory is a starting point in strategic budgeting that gives districts a clear, well-structured view of their initiatives to support strategic resource management.
Learn how the Academic-ROI methodology equips districts to make data-informed, financially responsible decisions.
Motivated by the actionable insights from its Initiative Inventory and Academic ROI analyses, Fresno Unified is now implementing a strategic budgeting approach across the district.
