USEd - Educational Productivity

In March, to help states meet the challenge of doing more with less and to protect public schools from counterproductive cuts, the Secretary (Duncan) released promising practices on the effective, efficient, and responsible use of resources in tight budget times.  Building off of this work, the Department’s Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) has compiled information at http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/increasing-educational-productivity to help schools, school districts, and states increase their educational productivity.  This information has been pulled from numerous resources, in particular the work of leading thinkers in the field.  It is organized into 10 reform categories, each aligned with various strategies, practices, or approaches that seek to increase productivity by: (1) improving outcomes while maintaining current costs; (2) maintaining current outcomes while lowering costs; or (3) improving outcomes and lowering costs.  The strategies seek to invest in what works, make better use of technology, reduce mandates that hinder productivity, pay and manage for results, take full advantage of existing opportunities, and make short-term investments for long-term results.