This presentation defines and explores how school districts can fund schools through a more decentralized system that connects extra dollars to students that require additional resources.

1. RETHINKING RESOURCES
FOR STUDENT SUCCESS Weighted Student Funding (WSF)

2. Why do districts decide to implement WSF?
• EQUITY: Students are funded equitably
regardless of which school they attend.
• SCHOOL EMPOWERMENT: Schools
have both the autonomy and the
responsibility to design their schools to
best meet their student needs.
• INNOVATION: Principals have the freedom to organize their school in whatever
way they believe will best serve their students.
• ACCOUNTABILITY: Every school controls its own budget and school leaders
are responsible for resource decisions and related outcomes.
• TRANSPARENCY: A WSF formula makes it clear to all relevant stakeholders how
much money schools receive and how the allocation process works.
2

3. Before we begin, let‟s talk a little about
terminology …
Weighted Student
Funding???
Districts use many different names for their WSF systems …
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4. Here are a few important terms that are often
used when discussing the WSF formula
WSF Formula: The formula that the district will use to allocate out the WSF Pool to
schools – the formula is calculated using the WSF Weights and Student Enrollment data.
BASE WEIGHT: Weight that every student receives
FOUNDATION: Fixed amount given to all schools (or just to small
schools) to help cover baseline “fixed” costs
NEED WEIGHTS: Additional $s provided to meet the needs of
certain student populations
GRADE-LEVEL
PERFORMANCE (HIGH and LOW)
SPECIAL EDUCATION
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
MOBILITY
SCHOOL TYPE

5. Here are a few important terms that are often
used when discussing school control of resources
LOCKED or RETAINED CENTRALLY
• Resources that the district will manage centrally due to a
compelling reason: consistency, economies of scale, etc.
• These $s are not included in the WSF Pool and are not
allocated out via the WSF Formula
UNLOCKED or DEVOLVED to SCHOOLS
• Resources that schools have budgetary control over –
i.e., schools are responsible for providing these services
using their WSF Allocations and meeting any applicable
federal, state, local, funding, union requirements
• Resources that will be included in the WSF Pool and
allocated to schools based on the WSF formula.

6. Under WSF, schools receive $s based on the needs of the
students at their schools …
The district will determines how much it costs to serve different student
types, for example:
Mark Maria
1.60 = $8,000 1.50 = $7,500
Additional Weight - the
additional $s given to SPED Resource
certain students to 0.5 = $2,500 ELL
reflect the increased 0.4 = $2,000
cost to serving their Poverty
learning challenges High School
0.1 = $500
0.05 = $250
Base Weight - the $s 1.0 = $5,000 1.0 = $5,000
that all students receive
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7. Due to internal/external restrictions around the $s that districts
receive, WSF is just one part of how $s are allocated to schools
How districts get $s: How districts allocate $s to schools:
Allocated via WSF Formula
GENERAL FUND $s
“Locked funds” allocated via District
Policy
(i.e., 1 art teacher per school,
$200/pp for library books)
CATEGORICAL
FUND $s Allocated via rules of the
categorical fund
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8. So schools will receive budgets made up of all three
components:
Example: Elementary School Budget
Weighted Student Funding Enrollment Weight Total $s
Base Weight 500 1.0 = $5,000 $2,500,000
Poverty 300 0.1 = $500 $150,000 Important
ELL 33 0.3 = $3,000 $100,000
Implications :
SPED – Resource/Consultant 10 1.0 = $5,000 $50,000
Schools will
TOTAL : $2.8 million
likely receive
Special Funds Locked Funds
a significant
portion of their
Title I Allocation $100,000 Custodian/Cleaner 2 FTE = $75,000
budgets
Title III Allocation $75,000 SPED TCOSE/CASE 1 FTE = $75,000
outside of WSF
C4E Allocation $75,000 Utilities & Maintenance $100,000
Total: $250k Total: $100k + 3 FTES
Total School Budget: $3.3 million
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9. WSF and Locked Funds should cover basic school structures,
while Special Funds are used to provide add„l support services
Education Resource Strategies 9

10. Two of the most important decisions that districts have to
make in developing their WSF system are:
1 What resources will be “unlocked” under WSF – a.k.a.,
budgetary control will be given to schools?
2 What student characteristics will the WSF formula
weight? And how much should the weights be?
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11. 1. To Lock or Unlock? That is the question …
Does school control of this resource fit within the district’s
VISION OF THE PRINCIPAL‟S ROLE?
Is this resource a key CENTRAL ROLE such that devolving it
impacts the district’s ability to fulfill a vital function?
Is this resource a district-wide priority that the district wants each
school/student to have CONSISTENT access to it?
Is this resource needed INFREQUENTLY OR UNPREDICTABLY,
making it hard for schools to budget for it?
Does this resource have REQUIRED INPUT/OUTPUT such
that the district is accountable for it to external source?
Does this resource have ECONOMIES OF SCALE such that
the savings for centralizing outweighs desire of school
control?
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12. 2. To Weight or Not to Weight? That is the question …
What type of ADDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES do students
with these characteristics need (i.e., what do we expect
schools to do with the extra dollars)?
Is this characteristic both SUFFICIENT AND UNIQUE within the
district’s overall population to merit weighting?
Does the district have the ability to TRACK AND PROJECT
ENROLLMENTS for this characteristic?
Does this student characteristic CORRELATE WITH
ANY OTHER CHARACTERISTIC such that we might
be double-weighting?
Are we supporting a DISTRICT PRIORITY by
deciding to weight this student
characteristic?
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13. Here's the universe of characteristics that other districts have
weighted under WSF:
Academic:
High-Performers
Grade-level
Poverty
School Type
Mobility
Academic: Low-
Performers
ELL Special Ed
Are there other characteristics?
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14. But districts weight only the characteristics that make sense
given their academic strategy and context
ff Baltimore Cincinnati Denver Hartford Houston NYC Oakland SF Seattle
Foundation
Amount
Grade
Perf-High
Perf-Low
Poverty
SPED
ELL
Other
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15. 1. Does the district believe that additional resources are
required to appropriately serve this student characteristic?
• What type of additional support
services do students with these
characteristics need?
 Extra instructional support?
 Extra socio-emotional support?
 Other types of support?
Low-income students may need both additional
For example: Poverty (FRL) students instructional and social-emotional support to
achieve at the same level as their peers
Education Resource Strategies 15

16. 2. Is this student characteristic sufficient and unique within the
district‟s overall population to merit weighting?
• Are there a sufficient number
of students with this
characteristic in the district
such that it makes sense to
weight them?
• Is this student characteristic so
pervasive across the district
such that almost all students
would be weighted?
Many top urban districts are 90%+ FRL - almost
all students would be eligible for this weight – it
For example: Poverty (FRL) students
may make more sense to build the additional
support into the base weight for all students
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17. 3. Does the district have the ability to track and project
enrollments for this student characteristic?
• Since WSF budgets are
developed in the spring
preceding the school year, the
district can only weight
characteristics for which it can
reasonably track and predict
accurate enrollments
• Otherwise, doing mid-year
adjustments will be a painful
process for schools
Most districts should be able to reasonably
For example: Poverty (FRL) students track and project FRL status based on historical
enrollment and demographic shifts
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18. 4. Does this student characteristic correlate with any other
characteristic such that we might be double-weighting?
• Weights are additive (i.e., students
receive all the weights that they
are eligible for)
• So if a student is already receiving
additional support for being X, do
they need more resources for
being Y?
• Or do those characteristics have
different needs that require
different resources?
Some research indicate that there may be
strong correlation between FRL status and low
For example: Poverty (FRL) students
academic performance, particularly at the
elementary school grade levels
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19. 5. Are we supporting a district priority by weighting this student
characteristic?
• Since the district has a limited
amount of funding, the more
characteristics it chooses to
weight, the fewer $s will be
available for each weight
• So the district should only be
weighting student
characteristics that reflect a
current district academic
strategy and priority
For example: Poverty (FRL) students Is supporting low-income students a specific
district academic strategy and priority?
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20. For example: District X was considering adding a grade weight
for students in K-3 and G7-9 and wanted to know the impact …
Grade Weight of
No Grade Weight
$750/pp for K-3, 7-9
SPED SPED
$20m $20m
ELL ELL
$5m $5m
Grade
Base Weight Base Weight $15m
$127m $114m
=> $5,000/pp => $4,500/pp
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21. … in other words, if you weight certain grades because you believe
they need add'l services, you are implicitly saying that other grades
need fewer services
No Everyone gets the same $5,000/pp
Grade
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Weight
K 1 2 3 7 8 9
Grade
Weight
These grades now get $5,250/pp
of
$750/pp
for K-3, These grades now get $4,500/pp
7-9
4 5 6 10 11 12
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22. When thinking about how much to weight characteristics in
the WSF formula – the questions to ask are:
How much does the district currently spend to serve this characteristic?
How much would the district “ideally” want to spend?
Current Range of the Possible Weights Ideal Program
Spending Design
Is this weight based on RESEARCH-DRIVEN best practices?
Does this weight make sense from an EQUITY stand-point?
What are the POLITICAL/COMMUNITY IMPLICATIONS of this weight?
Final Weight
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23. As we all know, the “devil is in the details” when it comes
to implementing WSF
Districts with WSF
make very different
decisions when it
comes to designing
their WSF systems
and developing
their WSF formulas
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24. But for WSF to work well, all districts must address the
following three issues:
AUTONOMY
District policies and practices are Strategic Use of
changed to permit school leaders to School-Level
use resources strategically Resources
CAPACITY
Central office provides training and
Capacity
support to help school leaders use
resources strategically
ACCOUNTABILITY
School leaders are held accountable
for student-outcomes and fiscal
responsibility in return for increased
control
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25. Education Resource Strategies (ERS)
is a non-profit organization that works
closely with leaders of urban public
school systems to rethink the use of
district and school-level resources,
supporting strategies for improved
instruction and performance.
Visit us at www.erstrategies.org
RETHINKING RESOURCES
FOR STUDENT SUCCESS Weighted Student Funding (WSF)