Eric Houck, School of Education
Improvement science is predicated upon feedback loops between scholars and educators that allow policy development and implementation to be an iterative and developmental process. Too often, however, these conversations and feedback loops occur in environments that are resource constrained. While a significant part of the problem may be resource insufficiency, another and often-overlooked part of the problem is that the culture around resource allocation is nestled within the processes and assumptions of incremental-based budgeting. This presentation provides an overview of budgetary practices school districts have undertaken to more tightly link resource allocation and improvement processes. Through the lens of resource allocation and budgeting theory from the field of school finance, this presentation will present zero-based budgeting (ZBB) and modified zero-based budgeting (mZBB) as alternatives to the incremental based budgeting paradigm. This presentation will provide an overview of the incremental and zero-based paradigms with conceptual links to district initiatives such as PDCA cycles. It will provide examples of school districts implementing ZBB and mZBB budgeting plans. Finally, this presentation will provide areas of attention and focus important for districts moving into ZBB and mZBB environments.