The ERS District Resource Allocation Modeler (DREAM) helps school districts see how the strategic management of resources — people, time and dollars — can impact the key levers of student performance.

DREAM guides you through a series of educational practices aimed at supporting and improving instruction. Some of these practices involve building district level support structures for schools, school leaders and teachers. Others are school-level practices that provide insight into how individual school leaders can creatively organize their resources given appropriate flexibility and support. There are no right answers. The Tool's power lies in presenting the key levers for success: high quality teachers with the support and flexibility to meet individual student needs in core academic areas and in allowing you to adjust resources and model options to make these conditions attainable.

Guiding Resource Principles

DREAM (the District ResourcE Allocation Modeler) is built on a foundation of research-based Guiding Resource Principles that promote student learning and which are common among high-performing schools and districts. Research shows that high performing districts and the schools within them:

• Invest in Teaching Quality through hiring, professional development, job structure and collaborative planning time;
  
  
• Use Student Time Strategically, linking to student needs by maximizing total time, including longer blocks of uninterrupted time, spent on core academic subjects and by purposefully aligning schedule with instructional design and student needs;
  
  
• Create Individual Attention and Personal Learning Environments by systematically assessing student learning in order to adjust instruction and support and identifying opportunities for creating small group sizes and lower teacher loads in high need areas
  
  

DREAM combines research and practice by translating the three Guiding Resource Principles into specific school improvement choices, such as school-based professional development, common planning time, and small group support. By quantifying the financial trade-offs and budget impact of these programs, and combining them with data from your own district, DREAM allows you to highlight the areas for the greatest potential improvement and the resources required to get there.

To get started, click the Choose Your Scenario link at left, or click the next button to continue.