Education Resource Strategies

Introduction
Guiding Resource Principles
How To Use This Tool

Accounts and Scenarios
Logging Into Your Account
Choosing a Scenario

Quick Start
Two-Minute Customization
District Cost Drivers

Elementary Schools
Class Size and Planning Time
Small Group Support
Individual Tutoring
Staffing Strategies

Secondary Schools
Class Size and Scheduling
Staffing Strategies

Professional Development
School-based PD
Individual Careers/Other PD

Compensation and Time
Teacher Compensation
Instructional Time

Reports and Results
Budget Summary
Per Pupil Costs

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.

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Copyright © 2005-10 Education Resource Strategies. All rights reserved.

We encourage you to use this model and to share it with anyone else who is dedicated to improving student performance through the strategic use of school resources. Selling this tool is expressly prohibited. See Terms of Use.

This research was supported by the School Finance Redesign Project at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education through funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grant No. 29252. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and are not intended to represent the project, center, university, or foundation.

This strategic resource allocation tool is designed to assist users in evaluating the costs of select educational program elements and alternatives. Neither ERS nor the School Finance Redesign Project endorses the use of any of the specific elements/alternatives contained in the tool, endorses the use of the elements/alternatives in the tool over other elements/alternatives, or guarantees the effectiveness of the tool elements/alternatives relative to improving student outcomes. Users of the tool bear sole responsibility for consequences associated with using the output of the tool and/or implementing the elements/alternatives in the tool.