Abstract

School personnel are facing demands for improving student performance. There is also increased accountability for how public school funds are used to improve student achievement. Previous studies that explored how schools used funds to implement instructional improvement strategies found that differences in school, district and state accounting systems made it difficult to pinpoint how dollars were leveraged to improve student performance.

In 2006, The Wyoming State Legislature commissioned a study of all schools within the state to clarify how schools were using state-allocated funds to improve student performance. In this dissertation, part of that larger study, eight schools in two Wyoming districts were studied. Interviews with principals, business managers and superintendents were used to identify improvement strategies being used in the schools and how these strategies were financed. The researcher compared actual use of resources at the school level with recommended funding outlined in the school finance model used by the state of Wyoming. The study used protocols and instrumentation designed by Lawrence O. Picus and Associates.

Case studies of the schools provided data from which common instructional improvement strategies were identified and described. The researcher found that schools used a variety of improvement strategies and some strategies were more common across the schools than others. Principals were generally unaware of specific funds used to finance improvement strategies at their schools. A comparison of actual use of funds with intended use based on the Wyoming school finance model indicated that the schools were staffed closely to the Wyoming model. Exceptions included a large number of instructional aides not included in the state model and the under use of certified tutors and instructional facilitators which were specifically recommended and funded within the model.

Further study is needed to determine how schools leverage funds to implement cost-effective, research-based strategies and what affect this has on student performance. Additional research is also needed to explore school and district-level budgetary processes that promote improved student performance at the school level.