摘要：Financial data provided to school leaders is inadequate. Present reporting systemsobstruct efforts to direct financial resources to where they will benefit student learning most.Traditional school accounting systems lack specificity about how funds are consumed, and fail toconnect spending to student performance. This article reviews research on attempts to improveschool reporting systems and efforts to determine if the level of financial resources, orredirection of them, improves student outcomes. It specifically addresses Activity-BasedCosting’s potential and whether, if paired with the relative autonomy of charter schools, it canprovide the information needed to help leaders make intelligent decisions to improve studentoutcomes. The findings show that resources do impact student learning, and that betterinformation provided to school management improves its ability to direct funds where they willdo the most good, but that a comprehensive Activity-Based Costing system is not feasible due toimplementation cost and administrative burden. Capturing school-level costs at relativelyautonomous charter schools is a more practicable approach, and a potential template for doing sois outlined. Next steps for connecting that data to student outcomes as a path toward improvingachievement are suggested.
