Allocation of educational resources to improve student achievement: Case studies of six California schools within two school districts

This study examined the resource allocations at district levels as well as the school site level utilizing Odden & Picus' (2008) Evidence-Based Model as a framework. Although schools were chosen using participation in the free and reduced lunch program as well as the percentage of Hispanic students, the allocation of resources within each district appeared to vary substantially. Some schools and districts were effectively raising student achievement. Odden and Archibald (2009) present ten strategies to doubling student performance. This study attempted to see how many of these ten strategies are present in the schools being studied as well as if and how resources were being allocated to support those strategies.;The following four research questions were used to guide this study: 1) What are the current instructional vision and improvement strategies at the school level? 2) How are the resources at the school and district levels used to implement the school's instructional improvement plan? 3) How did the allocation and use of resources at the school change in response to the recent budget adjustments including overall funding reductions and changes in the use of categorical funds? 4) How are the actual resource use patterns at the school sites aligned with or different from the resource use strategies used in the Evidence-Based or other Model?;The findings from this study suggest that the six sample schools were all at varying levels of implementation of the 10 Strategies for Doubling Student Performance (Odden & Archibald, 2009) in addition to falling far below the suggestions of the prototypical elementary school in the Evidence-Based Model. All schools showed API growth over the five years included in this study, however those that understood the performance problem facing their school and felt the urgency that accompanied it, showed greater growth than those that did not. The findings also indicated that although California schools are severely underfunded, they are attempting to raise student achievement with their current resources in creative ways.