LEADERSHIP, FINANCE, AND GOVERNANCE

Overview

CEPEG faculty have expertise in critical areas of leadership, finance, and governance, with a specific emphasis on equitable distribution of financial, human and social capital. Center researcher Dr. Lawrence O. Picus co-developed the widely used Evidence Based method of school finance adequacy, which seeks to answer the question of how much money is needed to ensure all students have the opportunity to meet student performance standards. He has spent over four decades working in partnership with states such as Michigan, Arkansas, and Wyoming, and districts including Anchorage, Alaska and Beaverton, Oregon to get answers to these questions. Co-Director Marsh co-leads a statewide research collaborative analyzing California’s historic Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) designed to advance equity through new weighted student funding and greater local discretion. Marsh has also studied K12 governance and is co-leading a national study of Portfolio Management Models in Los Angeles, Denver, and New Orleans. As Superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Co-Director Robles oversaw the budgets for 80 school district and worked closely with superintendents on the financial stability of the districts. Her work in the Office focused on at-risk and special needs students in schools run by the Office and directed services to cash-strapped districts, particularly those with low-performing schools. Dr. Robles has also advanced leadership for equity in her publications and as an instructor in and developer of Rossier’s online Master’s program in school leadership.

A list of recent publications and projects is available below.

Leadership

Franco, C. S., Ott, M. G., & Robles, D. P. (2011). A Culturally Proficient Society Begins in School: Leadership for Equity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Marsh, J. (2011). The promises and challenges of deliberative democracy in practice: A comparative case study of two districts. In Cavalier, R. (Ed.), Approaching deliberative democracy: Theory and practice. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Marsh, J. A., & Farrell, C. C. (2014). How Leaders Can Support Teachers with Data-driven Decision Making: A framework for understanding capacity building, Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 43(2), 269-289.

Marsh, J. A. & Kennedy, K. E. (2018, March-April). What is ‘meaningful’ stakeholder engagement, and how can we facilitate it? Leadership, 47(4), Retrieved from  magazine. http://joom.ag/qFaY/p12.

Porter, A.C., Polikoff, M.S., Goldring, E., Murphy, J., Elliott, S.N., & May, H. (April 2010). Developing a psychometrically sound assessment of school leadership: The VAL-ED as a case study. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(2), 135-173.

Porter, A.C., Polikoff, M.S., Goldring, E., Murphy, J., Elliott, S.N., & May, H. (December 2010). Investigating the validity and reliability of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education. Elementary School Journal, 111(2), 282-313.

Yuan, K., Le, V., McCaffrey, D., Marsh, J. A., Hamilton, L. S., Stecher, B. M., & Springer, M. G., (2013). Incentive Pay Programs Do Not Affect Teacher Motivation or Reported Practices: Results from three randomized studies, Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 35(1), 3-22.

Finance

Allbright, T. & Marsh, J. (2019). Voter Awareness, Support, and Participation in California’s Local Control Funding Formula Evidence from the PACE/USC Rossier Poll Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University.

Aportela, A., Picus, L., Odden, A., & Fermanich, M. (2014). A Comprehensive review of state adequacy studies since 2003. Denver, CO: Augenblick, Palaich & Associates.

Bruno, P. (2019). The Challenges of Employee and Retiree Health Benefit Costs for California Districts. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University.

Koppich, J.E., Humphrey, D.C., & Marsh, J.A. (2015). Two years of California’s Local Control Funding Formula: Time to reaffirm the grand vision. Stanford, CA: PACE.

Marsh, J., Bush-Mecenas, S. & Hough, H. (2016). Local control in action: Learning from the CORE districts’ focus on measurement, capacity building, and shared accountability. PACE Policy Brief. Stanford, CA: PACE.

Marsh, J. A. & Hall, M. (2018). Challenges and Choices: A Multidistrict Analysis of Statewide Mandated Democratic Engagement. American Educational Research Journal, 55(2), 243-286.

Marsh, J., Hall, M., Allbright, T., Tobben, L., Mulfinger, L., Kennedy, K., & Daramola, E. J. (2018). Taking stock of stakeholder engagement in California’s Local Control Funding Formula: What we can learn from the past four years to guide next steps? Getting Down to Facts II, policy report. Stanford, CA: PACE.

Marsh, J. A., & Koppich, J. E. (2018). Superintendents Speak: Implementing the Local Control Funding Formula. Retrieved from Policy Analysis for California Education https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/superintendents-speak.

Marsh, J., Springer, M. G., McCaffrey, D. F., Yuan, K., Epstein, S., Koppich, J., Kalra, N., DiMartino, C., & Peng, A. (2011). A big apple for educators: New York City’s experiment with schoolwide performance bonuses.  Santa Monica, CA: RAND: MG-1114-FPS.

Odden, A.R., & Picus, L.O.  (2014).  School Finance:  A Policy Perspective, Fifth Edition.  New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.

Odden, A., & Picus, L.O. (2011, September). Improving teaching and learning when budgets are tight. Phi Delta Kappan, 93 (1), 42-48.

Picus, L.O., Adamson, F., Montague, W., & Owens, M.  (2014).  A New Conceptual Framework for Cost Analysis.  In l. Darling-Hammond & F. Adamson (Eds.), Beyond the Bubble Test:  How Performance Assessments Support 21st Century Learning. (239-258 and 363-376). San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

Picus, L.O., Monk, D.H., & Knight, D.  (2012). Measuring the Cost Effectiveness of Rich Clinical Practice in Teacher Preparation:  Part One, Understanding the Problem.  Prepared for the National Council for accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).  August 2012.

Picus, L.O., & Odden, A.R.  (2011).  Reinventing School Finance:  Falling Forward.  Peabody Journal of Education, 86:3, 291-303.

Governance Reform

Marsh, J. (2011). The promises and challenges of deliberative democracy in practice: A comparative case study of two districts. In Cavalier, R. (Ed.), Approaching deliberative democracy: Theory and practice. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Marsh, J., Strunk, K., & Bush, S. (2013). Portfolio district reform meets school turnaround: Early Implementation findings from the Los Angeles Public School Choice Initiative. Journal of Educational Administration, 51(4), 498-527.

Marsh, J.,  & Wohlstetter, P. (2013). Recent trends in intergovernmental relations: The resurgence of local actors in education policy, Educational Researcher, 42(5), 276-283.

Mulfinger, L.S., Carter, A. & Melnicoe, H. (2017). The Antelope Valley: Over the hill and out of sight. Stanford, CA: PACE. http://www.edpolicyinca.org/publications/antelope-valley-over-hill-and-out-sight.

Strunk, K.O., & Marsh, J. (2015, November 20). If Turning Around a School Were Easy [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2015/11/if_turning_around_a_school_were_easy.html

Finance

Implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Stuart Foundation, and Kabcenell Foundation. Co-Principal Investigator Julie Marsh, 2016-2019.  This project is documenting the implementation of LCFF in California, drawing on case studies of local school systems and surveys.  The research has focused on how resource allocation decisions are made at the local level, how funds are used to address the needs of target student groups and advance equity goals, how community stakeholders are engaged in the development of local accountability plans, and the extent to which LCFF is advancing the implementation of state standards.

Governance Reform

The New “One Best System”? Urban Governance and Educational Practice in the Portfolio Management Model. Spencer Foundation. Co-Principal Investigator Julie Marsh (with Katharine Strunk, Katy Bulkley, Doug Harris). 2016 – 2018. This study examines the changing school district governance and practices in Los Angeles, Denver, and New Orleans. The purpose of the study is to examine ties between the portfolio management model (PMM) infrastructure and practices of system-level actors, educational management organizations such as charter management organizations (CMOs), and schools, and the key intermediate outcomes these ties are intended to generate.  Principal and teacher surveys, system-level interviews, school-level case studies, and administrative data are used to investigate how these systems enact the five core PMM mechanisms (autonomy, performance accountability, parental choice, human capital management, capacity building) and what factors and conditions shape the structures and practices implemented at all levels, as well as the outcomes associated with these efforts.

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