School administration to propose new funding formula

When Arlene Ackerman arrived in Philadelphia nearly two years ago, she was stunned to discover that public-school children in some neighborhoods had instrumental-music programs at school, while their peers in other parts of the city had none.

"Those inequalities to me are inexcusable," Ackerman, Philadelphia's schools superintendent, said in 2008. "My job is to make sure we level this playing field so all children have equal resources."

Today, her administration will introduce weighted student funding, which will shift how money is allocated to schools and who decides how it's spent.

Currently, the district doles out resources based on school size, with the central office largely directing where the money goes.

That can result in disparities in how much schools spend per student. For example, in one school with 275 students and 91 percent poverty, the district spends $12,188 per pupil. In another school with 94 percent poverty and 504 students, it spends $9,899 per pupil.

Schools receive small discretionary funds, but principals must often make tough choices in using them, such as forgoing music in favor of a full-time nurse, for instance.

Under the weighted formula, resources will be distributed based on student need as well as enrollment. More funds might follow poor pupils and those who receive special education services, for instance, and schools would decide how to use the money.

Ackerman brought weighted formulas to San Francisco and Washington, where she was superintendent, and Seattle, where she was a top official. She'll be out of town making Pennsylvania's case for federal money, but David Weiner, her chief accountability officer, will introduce her plan at today's School Reform Commission meeting.

In an interview yesterday, Ackerman said weighted student funding was no silver bullet but "will certainly go a long way toward adding equity." When she interviewed for the Philadelphia job, she was asked by the commission to make it a priority, she said. The commission approved it when it endorsed "Imagine 2014," Ackerman's strategic plan.

In the fall, 57 city schools will participate in a $5 million pilot program to introduce the system. Each school will receive $150 extra per student, regardless of need.

School advisory councils - consisting of principals, school staff, and parents - will determine how they want to use the money.

Schools will also be asked to set their academic priorities in the fall rather than the spring to guide the spending.

A districtwide committee will decide which student characteristics to weigh, and how much weight to assign each. Ackerman's plan calls for weighted funding to be rolled out districtwide for the 2011-12 school year.

Some fear that the shift will penalize high-achieving schools, but Ackerman said that would not be the case.

"We're not going to rob Peter to pay Paul," said Ackerman. Still, "there'll be some shifting of resources, for sure," she said.

The superintendent said the formula would include some "hold-harmless" provisions to limit the amount of money schools could lose or gain.

Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Columbia University Teachers' College, said his "great concern with it is that it has not been implemented well in a number of places."

One potential minefield, Rebell said, is which student characteristics receive weight, and how much weight is given. In some districts, gifted students are weighed, and in others they're not, for instance.

"It can be very political," Rebell said.

Nationwide, many districts, including New York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, have adopted the formula, which is also still in use in San Francisco.

Eric Osberg of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank that supports weighted student funding, said it's a reform that's gaining momentum.

The formula makes sure dollars are allotted fairly, but it also "empowers schools," Osberg said. "The principal knows better than someone in the central office what their students need."

But Seattle, an early adopter, abandoned it in 2007. District spokeswoman Patti Spencer said it proved too cumbersome.

"The complexity of the administration and how long it took principals and building staff out of instructional time" proved problematic, Spencer said.

Weiner, district accountability chief, said that when he was a principal in New York and San Francisco, "the time we spent working as a community paid off in getting more buy-in and support for our reforms."

Dennis Kelly, president of the San Francisco teachers union, said the formula only works well when there is extra money. "If you do not [have it], then it's just a matter of essentially shifting blame to the school side, away from the central administration."

Weiner disagreed.

"We think that schools know their communities best," he said.

Seattle originally hoped the formula would "support increased student achievement in schools where there was an achievement gap," Spencer said. "While those schools did have additional sums, we really didn't feel that weighted student formula in and of itself made a great difference in the achievement moving."

Washington also abandoned weighted student funding in favor of uniform staffing at all schools.

But to some, giving schools funds based on a weighted formula can improve school operations.

Last summer, when Commonwealth Court Judge Doris Smith-Ribner ended a 40-year-old desegregation case against the district, her decision noted Ackerman's plan for implementing weighted student funding.

Along with largely eliminating teacher seniority in the lowest-performing schools and other measures, Smith-Ribner's decision deemed the formula a remedy that would help black and Hispanic children receive an equal education.

These schools have begun a pilot program designed to ease the district into weighted student funding. Each will receive $150 additional per student, regardless of need. In 2011, all district schools will move toward a weighted student funding model.

Academy at Palumbo

AMY Northwest

Arts Academy at Rush

Clara Barton School

Bodine High

Cayuga

Central High

Comegys

Comly

Constitution High

Russell Conwell Middle School

A.B. Day

Decatur

Disston

Dobson

F.S. Edmonds

Emlen

Finletter

Forrest

Anne Frank

Benjamin Franklin Elementary

Gompers

Greenberg

High School of Engineering and Science

Hancock

Hartranft

Hill-Freedman

Huey

A.S. Jenks

Kearny

Lingelbach

Loesche

Logan

John Marshall

Masterman

Mayfair

McCall

McClure

Meredith

Moffet

Morris

Motivation High

Olney Elementary

Overbrook Education Center

Pennypacker

Philadelphia High School for Girls

Philadelphia Military Academy at Elverson

Pollock

Powel

Prince Hall

Randolph Tech High

Sharswood

E.M. Stanton

Strawberry Mansion

Tilden Middle School

Wagner Middle School

Welsh

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