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Strategic Resourcing: Aligning District Investments with Student Outcomes

School districts face an array of competing pressures when choosing, and trying to make effective use of, academic resources for teaching and learning. There are cost constraints and the need to act responsibly with taxpayer funding. There’s the pressure to make decisions quickly so that promising resources can get into classrooms quickly. And there are the needs of different departments within a district, all of which bring their own needs to purchasing decisions. Collectively, these pressures lead many school systems into decisions based on short-term goals, rather than sound strategic thinking.

Beginning in 2024, Education Week, EdWeek Market Brief, and the EdWeek Research Center began publishing a series of stories, special reports, and other coverage exploring the tensions school districts face in strategic resourcing, or their efforts to select and make effective use of academic resources in sustainable ways, with long-term student outcomes in mind. Several of the stories are based on original survey surveys conducted by the Research Center. The stories and other coverage in this continuing series -- supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- not only probe the challenges district and school leaders and classroom educators face in making these decisions, but point our readers toward solutions.

View the Report: Strategic Resourcing for K-12 Education: A Work in Progress

Coverage for the Business Community — EdWeek Market Brief

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Helpful Aspects of Outcomes-Based Contracts that K-12 Officials Want All Vendors to Know
K-12 administrators' interest in outcomes-based contracts is growing — and there are new lessons for the K-12 space to glean from rising demand, new EdWeek Market Brief survey results reveal.
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A businessman using a magnifying glass to inspect price tags, symbolizing the concept of power purchasing.
How Much Buying Power Do Districts Give to Individual Schools?
An EdWeek Market Brief survey asks K-12 administrators about the autonomy granted to school leaders.
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K-12 Pilots Often Fall Short of Helping Districts Make Strategic Purchases. Here's How to Fix It.
New EdWeek Market Brief survey data shows a coalescing of administrators' expectations for the timing, implementation, safety, and monitoring of pilot programs.
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K-12 Funding: Which Sources of Money Do Districts Tap for Long-Term Needs?
Districts are increasingly looking toward traditionally long-term funding sources to help solve short-term needs.
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Are K-12 Central Offices Too Big Or Too Small To Be Strategic?
New EdWeek Market Brief survey results offer insight into the purchasing and budgeting approach that central offices take, and whether their structure gets in the way of strategy.
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K-12 Sales Cycle: How Long Do Districts Need To Make Smart Purchasing Decisions?
A new EdWeek Market Brief survey explores both the actual and ideal timelines for purchasing different categories of projects.
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In the Dark: Why School Districts' Process for Buying Academic Resources Confuses Vendors—and K-12 Officials
An EdWeek Research Center survey reveals that education companies and district and school leaders are flummoxed by K-12 procurement.
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Who Influences School District Purchasing of Academic Resources?
An EdWeek Research Center survey probes how school districts make choices about instructional materials.
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How Silos in School Districts Foil Best Practices in Buying Academic Resources
A pair of EdWeek Research Center surveys reveal the extent of procurement and instructional leaders making decisions in isolation.
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Siloed School Districts: 3 Big Takeaways for the K-12 Marketplace
New survey data explores the extent to which large and small school systems struggle with administrators making decisions in isolation.
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What Impact Will Outcomes-Based Contracting Have on the K-12 Market?
Staff Writer Emma Kate Fittes explains what new survey data from says about how district and school leaders see the procurement model.
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Coverage for District and School Leaders — Education Week

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Schools Want Results When They Spend Big Money. Here's How They're Getting Them
Tying spending to outcomes is a goal many district leaders have. A new model for purchase contracts could make it easier.
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3 Budgeting Lessons School Administrators Learned From ESSER
District leaders recommend maintaining a list of dream priorities and looking closely at return on investment.
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Some Districts Struggle to Align Their Spending With Instructional Needs
Some districts have more success than others using classroom-level insights to inform spending decisions, survey data show.
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School Districts Prepare to Go Without Some Federal Funds Next Year
Some school finance chiefs are preparing for worst-case scenarios as federal funding uncertainty persists.
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Events and Webinars

EdWeek Market Brief Summit 2025
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Data Dive: How Districts Are Making Decisions About Academic Resources, Post-Stimulus
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