Making Dollars and Sense of School-level Fiscal Decision Making PDF Download

Author: Lena M. Batt
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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Researchers in the school finance field have turned their attention from whether resources matter to how resources matter. Answering this question requires examining resources and budgeting at the school-level, a topic that has been historically overlooked in scholarship. This three-study and multiple-methods dissertation answers how school leaders conceptualize, garner, and allocate resources by focusing both on budget and resource decisions. The first quantitative study, using New York City public school data, employs latent profile analysis to identify three classes of schools based on expenditure patterns in their budgets. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regression, I found that budget decisions are driven primarily by school level, although the elementary schools make different choices based on student needs. Inequities in teacher sorting persist, especially in elementary schools. Numerical data can provide insight into what percentage of the budget was spent on particular resources across the largest district in the nation, such as in the first study, but we still do not know why. Using in-depth interviewing, I explored how and why school leaders make budget and resource decisions in studies two and three, which were based in two mid-sized, Midwestern districts. In the second study, I investigated school leader budget decision making and how principals met their resource needs beyond the district allocation. Consistent with previous research, I found that the budget is primarily the principals' task and the level of transparency about the budget is determined by principal beliefs and staff expectations. When the budget did not meet the needs of the school, the principals used social skill, inducing others to cooperate by creating a shared identity, to garner resources from the district, families, and community. The amount of time spent on fundraising was largely determined by the school's socioeconomic context. The third study went beyond the budget to understand school leaders' sensemaking about allocating resources to shape their desired instructional climate. Using an expanded definition of resources, I found that school leaders have far more control over resources than researchers and policymakers typically assume. The school level plays an important role in equity and how resources matter.