Make the most of school district budgets to deliver the best for students
Facing tight budgets, rising student needs, increasing expectations, and the imminent end to ESSER funding, school district leaders must make courageous choices to shift resources and allocate funds to those initiatives that do the most good for students.
DMGroup’s comprehensive strategic budgeting methodology helps school districts embed a data-driven budgeting process to ensure resources are allocated most effectively and efficiently in line with district priorities and established strategic initiatives.
We leverage our Academic Return on Investment (A-ROI) methodology, which enables you to assess which programs are successful, which are not, and which could use some adjustments. This information empowers you to make data-informed decisions about spending, staffing, and resource allocation and to build stakeholder buy-in for budgeting decisions.
We also offer a professional development program, Academic-ROI (A-ROI) Institute, to help build capacity within your district to adopt the A-ROI lens and budget strategically.
The CFO of Fort Worth Independent School District (TX), Carmen Arrieta Candelaria, talks about strategic budgeting and Academic Return on Investment in partnership with DMGroup.
Rockford Public School District 205 (IL) Superintendent Ehren Jarrett discusses the positive impact of strategic budgeting and Academic-ROI initiatives implemented in partnership with DMGroup.
South San Antonio ISD (TX) closed a $4 million budget gap and identified an additional $4 million to reallocate to strategic priorities to improve outcomes for students.
Using actionable insights from its Initiative Inventory and A-ROI analyses, leaders at FUSD (CA) are transforming their approach to school district budgeting.
Two member districts are leveraging the A-ROI approach to find out what programs work, for which students, and at what cost, and dramatically altering the way they approach strategic budgeting.
DMGroup’s Strategic Budgeting approach is a data-driven, methodical, phased approach to ensure the most effective, efficient use of resources to achieve district priorities.
The planning and budgeting process begin with a review of your strategic plan to identify district priorities; then, the focus turns to articulating a clear theory of action to guide resource allocation decisions in alignment with strategic priorities. Information on academic outcomes and cost structure is gathered to assess the academic return on investment. Our process also takes into account the importance of building capacity in the district, building buy-in from internal and external stakeholders, and adjusting and establishing processes and systems.
Student-based budgeting creates a transparent system where each student receives the same amount of funding as other students with comparable educational needs, thereby promoting equity.
In this in-depth PD program, district teams learn how to critically analyze the impact and cost of their programs and budget strategically.
Three districts learned how to integrate data into resource allocation decisions to ensure maximum impact from district budgets.
Determine whether your district is ready, willing, and able to shift to the A-ROI approach.
Key lessons to keep front and center as you evolve your current practices toward a strategic budgeting approach.
