District of Columbia School Funding Study
Prepared for the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Education in 2023
In 2023, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) in Washington, DC engaged APA and its partners (Afton Partners and Metropolitan Strategies and Solutions) to conduct a comprehensive review of the city’s school funding system, known as the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF). Our team was asked to examine whether the formula is meeting the needs of DC’s students and to recommend ways to strengthen funding so schools can better support teaching and learning. To do this, we combined national research, detailed spending data, and input from local educators, families, and community members.
The study focused on three central questions:
How do schools use their dollars today? What’s working and where are there gaps?
How should the District allocate UPSFF dollars moving forward to accelerate learning and better support the unique needs of schools and students?
How should the District allocate non-UPSFF dollars to build and maintain strong instruction and an ecosystem of student supports?
The findings worked to inform a set of five actionable, comprehensive recommendations:
Adjust the UPSFF to better meet student needs.
Pay for specific, proven interventions directly, outside the UPSFF.
Allow schools to focus on the instructional core.
Nudge the system to greater efficiency.
Better understand how dollars are spent.