Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools: How To Survive and Thrive in Tight Times

Nathan Levenson

maj 2012 · Harvard Education Press

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Armed with real-world examples and out-of-the-box ideas, Nathan Levenson challenges conventional thinking about school budgeting and offers practical, actionable advice for school superintendents, central office leaders, building principals, and school board members.

Virtually every school district in the nation is experiencing an extended period of financial constraints. Shrinking tax revenue, decreasing federal stimulus funds, rising health care and pension costs, and growing high-need student populations will continue to test superintendents and school boards as they seek to prepare students for a globally competitive environment.

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Nathan Levenson began his career in the private sector, starting as a strategic planning management consultant, the owner of a midsized manufacturer of highly engineered machinery, and a turnaround consultant helping struggling firms. A passion for public education led to a career switch that included six years as a school board member, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Harvard, Massachusetts, and superintendent of the Arlington (Massachusetts) Public Schools.

Nathan’s leadership led to widescale changes in academic programs by accelerating the move to standards-based education and teacher-developed common formative assessments in reading, math, writing, and social studies.

He helped create and champion an intensive reading program that reduced the number of students reading below grade level by 68 percent and revamped special education services, leading to a 24 percentage-point improvement in academic achievement in English and math. The Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy identified Arlington High as a best-practice school for raising achievement of students with special needs by more than nearly all other schools in the state, a two-thirds reduction in the achievement gap.

By redesigning its budgeting, custodial, financial accounting, and leadership structure, the Arlington district created significant savings while providing higher service levels in all areas that were affected. Savings were shifted to academic programs that helped students directly. As a strong believer in the importance of developing staff, Nathan implemented a new system for hiring teachers and created teamwork between administrators and teams of teachers, despite an environment that had previously prized isolation and turf conflict.