Empowerment Schools

Key Elements

• Local Control/Site-based Management: With principals as CEO's and members of the school community as governing boards, parents and educators set their school's budget, hire its staff, and determine the programs, curriculum, and goals to meet the needs of its students.
• Weighted Student Funding/Backpack Funding: Schools are funded almost entirely by education dollars that follow the student to the school of their parent's choice.  Funding is allocated to each student based on a simple formula that takes into account some or all of the following: grade level, special needs/disability, language proficiency, disadvantaged economic status, and whether the child is gifted and talented.
• Accountability: Schools are held accountable to school districts for student performance and compliance to prevent waste, fraud, and corruption.  They're also directly accountable to parents who have complete control over which public school their child attends.
• Focus on Student Achievement: Measurements of student progress are taken regularly so that teachers know how to help each child, principals know which teachers are succeeding, superintendents know which principals are managing the process well, and parents know how their individual child is progressing.
• Public School Choice: Parents freely choose their child's public school.  Coupled with the elements above, public school choice gives parents a diverse array of quality schools to choose from.

Read more >>

Performance/Merit Pay and Differential Pay

Performance/Merit Pay and Differential Pay are innovations in how teachers are compensated.  Currently, most teachers are paid based on a traditional single-salary schedule in which experience and education level are the only factors that influence salary. About 70% of school districts in the U.S. pay teachers in this way.

What is Performance Pay or Merit Pay?

Merit Pay compensates teachers based on their performance or value add to the classroom rather than just their experience and education level.  Performance is measured by teacher evaluations and gains in student outcomes.  In this way, the best teachers are rewarded for their efforts and abilities.

What is Differential Pay?

Differential Pay increases the compensation for teachers in hard-to-staff areas (such as math, science, and special education or high-need schools). The purpose is to provide an incentive for prospective teachers to specialize in subjects or apply for positions where there is a greater need.

Read more >>

Online/ Virtual Schools

The use of online/virtual schools is growing rapidly in K-12 and higher education.  These programs provide online instruction for students both within and outside of the classroom.  Some online schools offer courses as a supplement to the classroom setting while others offer full-time programs in place of enrolling in a traditional school. 

Read more >>

Weighted Student Funding

a.k.a. Backpack Funding, Fair-Student Funding, Results-Based Funding, Student-Based Funding

Key Elements

Weighted Student Funding or WSF proposes a system of school funding based on five key principles:

1. Funding should follow the child, on a per-student basis, to the public school that he or she attends.
2. Per-student funding should vary according to the child's need and other relevant circumstances.
3. Funding should arrive at the school as real dollars—not as teaching positions, ratios, or staffing norms—that can be spent flexibly, with accountability systems focused more on results and less on inputs, programs, or activities.
4. Principles for allocating money to schools should apply to all levels of funding, including federal, state, and local dollars.
5. Funding systems should be as simple as possible and made transparent to administrators, teachers, parents, and citizens.

Read more >>