Wisconsin
Beginning in April 2005 and ending March 2007, Odden led an effort to conduct a costing out study that was recommended by a 2004 report from the Wisconsin Governor’s School Finance Task Force. Odden created a bi-partisan Policy Advisory Task Force of 30 policy and political leaders in the state, including a representative from the Governor’s office, the chair of the Governor’s Task Force, the chairs and ranking minority members of the Assembly and Senate Education Committees, the Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, and several leading educators, to review an Evidence-Based approach to school finance for Wisconsin. After studying several districts and schools in Wisconsin, including schools and districts with diverse student populations that had dramatically improved student performance, the report focused on design of a strategy for Wisconsin to achieve similar improvements in the performance of students across all of the state’s K-12 public schools. This included design of a state school funding formula that more explicitly linked funding to student learning.
