July 2007
In this issue: District Dollars: Painting a Picture of Revenues and Expenditures in California's Schools

Featured Research

"District Dollars: Painting a Picture of Revenues and Expenditures in California's School Districts"
Susanna Loeb, Jason Grissom, and Katharine Strunk

This report is part of Getting Down to Facts: A Research Project to inform solutions to California's Education Problems. As the debate in California grows regarding both the sufficiency and efficient use of school funds, there is still a lack of understanding of exactly what school districts spend money on and from where they get these funds. The goal of this paper is to describe the patterns of revenues and expenditures across California's school districts, describe how spending has changed over time, and compare California to other states. The paper defines categories of expenditures and revenues, taking as the base the existing definitions found in California's detailed accounting system, the Standardized Accounting Code Structure (SACS). The data come from the 2004-05 school year, the most current available SACS. The paper presents averages and distributions for each of the expenditure and revenue groups. A full version of the paper is available on the PACE website's Publications page.

Related Research

"Parallel Play--Preschool and K-12 Finance Reform in New Jersey and Texas"
Bruce Fuller and Joseph Wright

PACE's paper offers policy and implementation lessons from two states – New Jersey and Texas – as they have moved to advance preschool and K-12 finance reform in tandem. These states have assembled the puzzle pieces in differing ways, however both states are determined to widen access for families who can least afford quality preschool. The policy experiences of these states, over the past quarter century, yield notable lessons for California which are also discussed in this paper. The paper can be viewed in it's entirety on the PACE website's Publications page.

California School Finance Website Hosted by EdSource.

In the coming years, EdSource expects the public debate around school funding to intensify. They created this website to help inform that debate. It will address the full compendium of questions related to school finance in California, and do so in a way that is accurate and clear, unbiased and balanced.

Message From the Executive Director

The release of the “Getting Down to Facts” (GDTF) studies has created a moment when it is at least possible that the political stars will align to produce non-incremental reforms in California’s public school system. Consequently, Governor Schwarzenegger has declared that 2008 will be the Year of Education Reform, but the agenda for reform remains wide open. A variety of actors and organizations are currently at work seeking to translate the empirical and analytical work carried out in the GDTF studies into specific recommendations for policy change in our state's education system. At PACE we are focusing our attention on two sets of issues. The first of these concerns California’s education data systems, and policies to improve these. California committed itself nearly a decade ago to dramatically improve the quality and quantity of data that it collects on schools, teachers, and students. Some progress has been made, but the full implementation of the state’s promised data systems remains at least a year or two away. As the GDTF studies made clear, the lack of reliable data represents a serious obstacle to California’s goal of comprehensive educational reform, because it prevents the state from learning…. The resources required to fully implement the data systems that are now under development are a tiny share of the state’s annual spending on education.

PACE is currently at work on two policy briefs related to California’s education data systems. The first of these describes the core elements of a strong data system, based on the systems in use in other states, other countries, and other sectors. The second asks the question “What would a learning system look like?” in education. This brief seeks to identify the key features of an education system organized to generate new knowledge about effective policies and practices, and committed to use new knowledge to support continuous improvement in the performance of schools and students. Both of these policy briefs will be published shortly. PACE is also working with a variety of partners to develop specific recommendations for change in the policies that govern the preparation, recruitment, assignment, retention, and compensation of personnel in the education system. As several of the GDTF studies noted, there are fewer adults per child in California’s education system than in almost any other states, and even fewer non-teaching personnel. Among many other things, this means very large classes in some parts of the system, very limited supervision and support for teachers, and the virtual disappearance of non-teaching staff including counselors, librarians, nurses and others. Policies aimed at significant improvements in the performance of schools and students must focus not only on the number of adults employed in the system, but also on the ways in which system personnel are deployed. It is not enough to “get more resources to the classroom;” it is necessary to allocate human resources in ways that provide the greatest support for student success. PACE has begun work on two policy briefs that address different aspects of the personnel issue in California’s education system. The first of these will look at policies to enhance the quality of teachers and teaching, while the second focuses on policies that will strengthen human resources outside the classroom and ensure that schools are able to provide the leadership and support needed for student success. Both of these policy briefs should be published this fall.


If you have questions about PACE and its activities, please feel free to contact us at PACE@berkeley.edu

David N. Plank
Executive Director

Upcoming Events

The 2007-08 PACE Seminars for Education Policymakers and Scholars

October 12, 2007 “The Economic Consequences of School Performance”
Eric Hanushek - Hoover Institution

In this seminar Dr. Hanushek will present data on how California’s schools compare to schools elsewhere, and explain why school improvement is essential for our state’s economic future.

November 2, 2007 “Data Systems and Data Use in California Schools”
Russlynn Ali - EdTrust West
Merrill Vargo - Springboard Schools
David N. Plank - PACE

California lags far behind many other states in the availability of timely, reliable data on schools, teachers, and students. This leaves our state at a big disadvantage in the effort to bring about lasting improvements at all levels of the education system, from the CDE to the classroom. In this seminar the Executive Directors of EdTrust West, Springboard Schools, and PACE discuss California’s progress toward the construction of an effective data system, and the additional steps that will have to be taken to transform our state’s education system into a true learning system.


December 14, 2007 “Policies to Support Better Teaching”
Julia Koppich - Koppich and Associates

Julia Koppich is an expert on teacher professionalism and the new teacher unionism, and a regular consultant to policy-makers and teachers associations across the United States and abroad. Better teaching is the key to improving the academic performance of schools and students, and the “Getting Down to Facts” studies identified a number of obstacles to better teaching in California’s education system. In this seminar Dr. Koppich will discuss policy options that might help to overcome these obstacles and support effective instruction for all students.


January 11, 2008 “Making Resources Count”
Marguerite Roza - Center on Reinventing Public Education

Marguerite Roza is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington. Her recent research has focused on tracking and analyzing variation in spending patterns among schools within urban districts, and on the development of school finance policies that lead to more equitable and efficient allocation decisions. In this seminar Dr. Roza will discuss new approaches to educational finance policy that support decentralized systems with flexible and equitable resources.


February 1, 2008 “Untangling School Governance”
Dominic Brewer - University of Southern California

Dominic Brewer's research on educational policy issues has included work on charter schools, class-size reduction, and teacher labor markets, among other subjects. Dr. Brewer contributed a wide-ranging study of California school governance to “Getting Down to Facts,” which evaluated the state’s governance system on five key criteria: stability, accountability, responsiveness, transparency, and efficiency. In this seminar, Dr. Brewer reviews the main findings from his study, and identifies strategies that might strengthen California’s school governance system over time.


March 7, 2008 “Reforming California’s High Schools to Reduce Dropout Rates”
Russell W. Rumberger - UC – Santa Barbara

Russell W. Rumberger is Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute. He is also the Director of the California Dropout Research Project. The CDRP seeks to identify the causes and costs of dropping out, and to develop policies that would increase the number of young people who complete their high school education. In this seminar Dr. Rumberger will review the main findings from the CDRP, and discuss strategies for reforming high schools and reducing the rate of dropout.


April 11, 2008 “Turning Around Low-Performing Schools”
Bruce Fuller - U.C. Berkeley and PACE

Bruce Fuller is a Co-director of PACE and a Professor of Education and Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley. The number of California schools that are subject to sanctions under state and federal accountability policies is steadily growing as is the number of interventions aimed at improving their performance. In this seminar Fuller will convene a panel to discuss current strategies in California for improving the performance of low-performing schools, and their prospects for success.

Unless otherwise noted, all PACE seminars are held at 1130 K Street (Old Weinstock's Building) from 11:30-1:30 P.M. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to pace@berkeley.edu

Upcoming PACE Publications

Beyond Access: How the First Semester Matters for Community College Students' Aspirations and Persistence
Anne K. Driscoll

The majority of young adults enter community colleges aspiring to transfer to four-year colleges to complete a bachelor's degree. Yet, the majority do not persist in community college and many lower their educational expectations soon after starting college. While these students have overcome obstacles to access to post-secondary education, many are not able to surmount the next set of obstacles to persistence in higher education. PACE's study examines patterns in their academic performance and aspirations over time and factors related to transfer. Out in August 2007. It will be available on the PACE website's Publications page.