Many District Leaders Fail to Think Strategically About Spending. What Gets in Their Way?
Budget & Finance Quiz

Many District Leaders Fail to Think Strategically About Spending. What Gets in Their Way?

By Sean Cavanagh & Lynn (Yunfei) Liu — October 24, 2025 1 min read
Image of school supplies falling into a shopping cart.
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School districts face enormous pressure to make smart decisions when they’re buying academic resources.

If they make the wrong moves, it’s not just taxpayers who suffer. Students do, too.

School systems across the country are looking for instructional resources that will help them improve students’ academic performance, and keep them engaged in school.

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Over the past two years, Education Week, EdWeek Market Brief, and the EdWeek Research Center have been working on a collaborative project to look at how school districts can engage in “strategic” resourcing when making important purchasing decisions.

The project, which is supported by the Gates Foundation, is grounded in original survey research and reporting, and focuses on the barriers that K-12 leaders face in making sound choices, and strategies to overcome those hurdles.

Test your knowledge about what our research and reporting reveal about school districts’ efforts to make strategically sound decisions about academic resources, and the challenges they face along the way.

Coverage of strategic resourcing to support teaching and learning goals for Education Week and EdWeek Market Brief is supported in part by a grant from the Gates Foundation, at www.gatesfoundation.org. Our editors retain sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

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