Align funding with student need.

Adopt a foundation-based approach.

Pre-kindergarten education programs as well as extended day and summer school programs are critical to the educational success of children living in poverty.

Allocate spending increase to 517 districts (162 other districts in the state were found to be spending adequately).

Adjust resources for geographic cost differences.

Adjust resources for geographic cost differences.

Use of public engagement - see Public Input, below - and a stakeholder panel, the Council for Costing Out, comprised of organizations representing parents, taxpayers, the business community, school board members and other education interest groups.

Relied on the New York State Regents Learning Standards (RLS) as the student performance criteria because they were designed to prepare students for citizenship and employment in the 21st century.

Set the school funding goal at 100% of students receiving the "full opportunity" to meet the Regents Learning Standards (RLS) and, thereby, having the opportunity to earn a high school diploma.

To supplement the Professional Judgment approach, the researchers:

analyzed costs and staffing in successful New York schools
created a Geographic Cost of Education Index for regions throughout the state by analyzing teacher labor markets, and
had outside consultants conduct an independent review of the study.

Attempted to make transparent all of the important assumptions in the study.

Definition: Sound Basic Education

Adequate funding was defined as the funding levels needed to ensure that all schools provide the opportunity to obtain a sound basic education (the state constitutional requirement) to all of their students.

PJP's

Professional Judgment Panels (PJPs) designed instructional programs for schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Eight panels comprised of seven New York educators each, included 2 panels each from:

New York City school district
High-need urban districts
Average- and low-need districts, and
Small town and rural districts.

After developing the instructional programs, each panel specified the resources needed to provide the programs, e.g. teachers. Then, each panel varied the instructional programs for schools with different percentages of low-income and ELL students.

Two additional panels with members from the initial 8 panels convened to review/adjust services tentatively allocated for special education students by the initial 8 panels, which had concluded that most special education students could be educated in general education classrooms.

The researchers calculated the costs of the resources specified by the PJPs and adjusted them according to a geographic cost index that they developed.

The Geographic Cost of Education Index specified a range from 0.8 to 1.10, compared to the SED's Regional Cost Index range from 1.0 to 1.496.

Later in the process, one "Summary PJP Team" with members selected from the initial 8 panels convened twice to help synthesize, clarify and interpret the study's results.

The initial stage of the study was devoted to 13 public engagement meetings held across the state in which participants were asked

what criteria define an "adequate" educational opportunity and
what do public schools in New York need in order to ensure all their students that opportunity?

These meetings established the outcome standards for the study, that is, meeting the RLS and 100% of students having the "full opportunity" to reach this level of achievement. Participants also recommended many programs and interventions (such as preschool, early literacy, small classes, guidance, and professional development) considered critical to providing a genuine opportunity, especially for at-risk students.

For more detail on this public engagement, see: Adequate Funding for New York's Schools: Communities Speak Out on What Schools Really Need to Succeed, (2003).

For information on the only other state to undertake a public engagement process in connection with its education cost study, see the Maine Fact Sheet.