Facing California’s School Technology Woes Within The School Finance System

I recently completed work on a bi-Partisan request to research and help guide K-12 public school reform policy in California. "Getting Down to Facts" is a research project of more than 20 studies designed to provide California's policy-makers and other education stakeholders with the comprehensive information they need to raise student achievement and reposition California as an education leader. The purpose of the research project is to carve out common ground for a serious and substantive conversation that will lead to meaningful reform by providing ground-level information about California's school finance and governance systems necessary to assess the effectiveness of any proposed reform. "Getting Down to Facts" was specifically requested by Governor Schwarzenegger's Committee on Education Excellence, Democratic leaders in the State Legislature and Jack O'Connell, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The project addresses three broad questions:

• What do California school finance and governance systems look like today?
• How can we use the resources that we have more effectively to improve student outcomes?
• To what extent are additional resources needed so that California's students can meet the goals that we have for them?

Our paper Effective Approaches for District Data Use Co-authored by Dr. Ida Oberman, asks
Are California school districts making the most of data systems to inform and guide education
reforms? Our study examines how data collection and analysis at the district level can be
improved so data systems can become more effective tools for decisions about spending,
resource allocation and improving instruction.