Under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), students’ need status drives funding, guides Local Control Accountability Plans, and determines which students are given access to resources and programs. Whereas the LCFF only classifies English learners, low-income, foster care, and McKinney Vento students as high need, schools are held accountable for the achievement of a wide range of student groups, all of which include students who struggle academically.The efficient and effective use of limited educational resources requires not just knowing which student groups underperform on average, but the specific individuals within all groups who are likely to struggle. This study compared the LCFF’s group-level approach for determining high-need status with an alternative method using student-level measures of opportunity. Low-opportunity status demonstrated over 11% higher classification accuracy using proficiency status on Smarter Balanced Assessments, up to 20% lower rates of misclassifying struggling students, and over 30% lower rates of misclassifying high-performing students. Directing resources towards low-opportunity students would expand the benefits of the LCFF to a broader range of students.
