| Faced with an unparalleled financial crisis, educators in the State of California are faced with the challenging task of educating an increasingly diverse student population toward mastery of some of the highest standards in the nation. As educators and policy makers struggle to find ways to ensure that schools in the Golden State are adequately funded, more attention is being paid to what the existing literature says about resource allocation and student achievement. This research study reviews the resource allocation patterns and instructional improvement strategies observed at five Southern California high schools, and compares the findings to an research-based model known as the Evidence Based Model. All five of the schools selected for this study were identified by the California Department of Education as Program Improvement schools due to not making Adequate Yearly Progress. All of the schools were found to be lacking adequate resources for educating the students that they serve and an overall lack of effective strategies for raising student achievement. |
