An Afton Partners Blog
School teams around the country are creating and implementing innovative academic models, bringing a personalized approach to student learning. Afton has engaged with hundreds of schools as they build these plans, encouraging innovative financial thinking alongside. In many competitive public and philanthropic grant programs, one of the rubric components that Afton has used is for… Continued
Afton’s work with public schools around the country has allowed us to surface simple best practices to help school system leaders confidently lead and oversee the fiscal aspects of running a school system. Now, we are sharing what we have learned by developing a diagnostic tool and providing actionable recommendations for each part of the… Continued
For the second consecutive year, Afton’s Scott Milam and Katie Morrison-Reed hosted an expert panel on sustaining innovative public-school models. This panel discussion built upon the discussion from a year prior at iNACOL, as four of the six panelists had previously shared their experiences and thoughts on sustainability on the prior year’s panel. As personalized… Continued
In 2017, Afton worked with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) to improve the agency’s process to allocate Title I Part A funding to its 400+ LEAs, and Afton shared its learning here. Since this initiative, Afton’s team has delved into federal funding allocation processes and identified common challenges in multiple states across over a… Continued
This is the third installment of Afton’s blog series, “Lessons Learned from the Raising Blended Learners Initiative in Texas,” where we share our experiences, findings, and thought evolution over the course of the RBL initiative. A detailed analysis of sources and uses of funds for the first year of the Raising Blended Learners grant program reveals: Sites plan… Continued
This is the second installment of Afton’s blog series, “Lessons Learned from the Raising Blended Learners Initiative in Texas,” where we share our experiences, findings, and thought evolution over the course of the RBL initiative. After reading this blog, the reader will: Understand the benefit of providing in-person financial workshops to grant applicants Understand how finance involvement in… Continued
This is the first installment of Afton’s blog series, “Lessons Learned from the Raising Blended Learners Initiative in Texas,” where we share our experiences, findings, and thought evolution over the course of the RBL initiative. Engaging Finance early in the development of new school models allows school design teams to: Empower school leaders with financial data to… Continued
In February 2018, Afton Partners joined Edunomics Lab, the Building State Capacity and Productivity Center, and the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) who hosted a one-day conference for over 30 State Education Agencies (SEAs). Afton led a session focused on how state agencies can play a role in fostering the usage of per-pupil financial data at the local level. We reflected on the role of State Education Agencies in fostering effective use of school site-based expenditure reporting. Our conclusion was that SEAs can do a lot to encourage effective use of this data, including training, issuing reporting guidance, clearly defining roles/responsibilities between state/local, and leading dialogue on the value of the reporting. Continued
Recently, Afton completed its engagement with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) with a plenary speech and breakout sessions at the annual MEGA conference for Title I administrators. The plenary speech provided an overview of the state’s corrected Title I allocation process for LEAs; further details and Q&A were provided in the breakout sessions. Earlier… Continued
Afton Conducts Professional Seminar on Innovation in Education for the University of Virginia’s MBA/MED Program Key takeaways: Finance is only one of several pillars for assessing and sustaining innovation in education. Real-world content, including case studies, lessons learned, and application of financial best practices, is becoming increasingly valuable to help cultivate financial acumen in education… Continued