Finance & Accountability

• Talking Points: Achievement Compacts – February 2012 – Governor Kitzhaber is planning to put achievement compacts in place to frame a different conversation between educators and citizens and parents in this state. The achievement compacts aim to build a strong framework for student improvement, and the next steps must include more detail on how to help schools achieve their goals.

• IT Efficiency and Online Learning Study – July 2011 - ECONorthwest examined the potential for savings in IT and new revenue streams from online learning in seven Oregon school districts: Amity, Dayton, McMinnville, Newberg, Sheridan, Willamina, and Yamhill-Carlton. Their findings revealed that most of the districts were already quite efficient in their IT services, while they could see a potential new revenue of $1.2 million by developing collaborative learning programs.

• Estimated Costs of Teacher Turnover in Oregon Using Two Methodologies – May 2010 – A brief report prepared by ECONorthwest comparing two measurements of teacher turnover costs. Depending on the measurement, it is estimated that Oregon spends roughly $40 million to $59.4 million annually due to teacher turnover.

• High Desert ESD Efficiency Study – May 2010 – ECONorthwest produced a report detailing the potential savings for school districts in Central Oregon if they were to consolidate their fiscal and information technology services. The results indicate a potential savings of $500,000.

April 18th, 2010- Central Oregon districts release their plans to share services.

• PERS – 2009 – “Where does the system stand and where could we go from here?” An update on the 2007 paper below.
• Read Chalkboard’s statement about the report – November 2009 – We do not endorse one option for reform, we simply present them for discussion.
• PERS – August 2007 – This report seeks to provide clear, objective information to policymakers, so they can evaluate whether additional changes to the Public Employees Retirement System are necessary. The report concludes with a range of policy options designed to further reduce the cost of the system to public employers and ultimately taxpayers. The report does not consider options designed to expand retirement benefits or increase the cost of the system.

• Best Practices in District Business Operations- In partnership with OASBO, Chalkboard funded business practice reviews in six Oregon districts. Learn more and read the reports.

• Oregon Public School Transportation Funding: An Evaluation of Alternative Methods – January 2009 – Addresses the need to incentivize transportation cost saving within school districts in Oregon.

• Finance Workgroup – 2006 – Chalkboard pulled together a group of experts and citizens to delves into the issues surrounding school finance and provide reccomendations for policy and programmatic next steps. (Full Report)(Key Findings)

• Oregon School Finance: A Review of System Stability, Adequacy, Equity and Transparency - January 2005 – The third in a series of reports evaluating schools, this report assembles evidence on policies that show potential to strengthen the state’s method of funding its schools.

• Improving and Strengthening Accountability in Oregon’s Schools: A Broad Review of Promising Practices and Policy Options – January 2005 – The second in a series of reports evaluating schools, this report moves from describing problems to exploring a wide range of policy options that schools might employ to solve them.

• Oregon Public School Transportation Funding: An Evaluation of Alternative Methods – Oregon Department of Education budget note on aforementioned transportation issue.

• Exploring School Choice – Explores open enrollment and charter schools for expanding school choice.

• Local Option Process – A background an analysis of school funding and proposals for reforming the local option process.

• School Improvement Fund – This issue paper highlights the limited, but growing, number of programs proven effective through experimental trials. Targeted expansions of these rigorously tested programs, with some of the newly available School Improvement Fund resources, would spark progress and rapidly move Oregon students into the academic top tier.

• Funding Formula Options – Addresses key implementation issues associated with a proposed transition to using average daily attendance, rather than enrollment, as the foundation of Oregon’s formula for distributing school revenue.

• K12 Business Practices – Addresses proposals to increase efficiencies in two areas: support services and student transportation.