Download or read book School Funding and Student Achievement written by Andy Spears and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Brief explores school funding reform in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1990, Kentucky passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act designed to overhaul that state’s education system. Two years later, Tennessee passed the Education Improvement Act which included the Basic Education Plan, designed to foster equity in funding among the state’s schools. Initiated as a result of lawsuits against the states’ educational systems, both programs dealt with school funding, specifically funding equalization among districts. This Brief examines the environments that precipitated funding reform in each state as well as the outcomes of the reforms on student achievement. The similarities and differences between the approaches in each state are analyzed and compared to related reform programs in other states. An in-depth study of regional educational reform in the United States, this Brief is of use to public policy scholars as well as education policy consultants and other school system or state education leaders.
Download or read book School Finance and Education Equity written by Bruce D. Baker and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inspiring account of bipartisan political success delivers an expert breakdown of how and why Kansas—a politically conservative state—was able to craft a stable, balanced, and equitable system of funding for its public schools. Beyond a chronicle of one state’s achievements, School Finance and Education Equity provides invaluable policy guidance and lays out a blueprint that other states can use to strengthen their own public education systems. Readers are given an insider’s tour of the Kansas story by Bruce D. Baker, an academic researcher and expert witness in school finance litigation. With more than two decades of involvement with the state, Baker combines historical background, legal analysis, and political and economic contextual data—along with a gleaming wit—to present a thorough, enlightening narrative of Kansas’s K–12 funding journey. As Baker points out, other states can find much to learn here. He shows that, when it comes to school finance, Kansas serves as an exemplar in aligning resources to meet the promises of its constitution. State leaders rejected the pervasive notion that money doesn’t matter in education, and they gathered the data to prove that it does. Baker emphasizes that this kind of slow and steady success hinges on the ability of stakeholders to remain involved over time. Continuity is vitally important. Baker’s account highlights how persistence can overcome opposition, continuity can aid reform, and incremental gains can lead to big change. In an era of national ideological polarization and political and economic volatility, the lessons from Kansas are especially illuminating.
Download or read book The Thief in the Classroom written by Jeff Swensson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An undetected thief lurks in America’s classrooms: funding for public education. Dynamic instruction, robust learning, and student futures are stolen when funding for public education is inadequate and inequitable. The devastating impact of this thievery is examined throughout this book. Student engagement with the potential and promise of traditional public education is stolen by funding formulas crafted by state legislatures. Theft in the classroom results when these funding schemes misdirect and disconnect the resources required to educate all US students. Called upon to deal with an ever-changing cascade of mandates, standards, legislation, and counterproductive testing marathons, but provided with funding so inadequate that instruction is often little better than anemic “test prep,” public educators in pursuit of the common good are robbed by insufficient funding. Although funding for public education is a topic unlikely to command frequent public discussion, no topic is more consequential for achievement, adequacy, and social justice in the learning, lives, and futures of America’s children and young people.
Download or read book Lessons in School Funding written by Terry Whitney and published by National Conference of State. This book was released on 1992 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: State litigation involving unconstitutional school financing systems are described in this document, which focuses on efforts in Texas to reform the financing of public education. Since its school finance system was declared unconstitutional in 1987, two subsequent proposals have been struck down by the Texas Supreme Court for the following reasons: (1) the proposals relied too heavily on local property taxes; and (2) a county education district plan essentially created a statewide property tax, which was against Texas law. The efforts of state lawmakers in Kentucky and New Jersey are also described. A conclusion is that states' school financing conflicts are far from over. In the majority of school finance litigation cases, the common thread is the focus on equitable resources for all schools. Additionally, courts have been asked to determine the basis of an adequate system of financing public education. Two maps that depict the legal status of states' education finance systems are included. (Contains 16 references.) (LMI)
Download or read book Communicating School Finance written by Chuck Waggoner and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005-09 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communicating School Finance is an essential fiscal guide for beginning principals, designed to help them become truly conversant in the language of everyday educational money issues. Dr. Charles R. Waggoner discusses the basics and current trends of educational finance to provide the beginning principal with a firm foundation that is essential for novice principals. An excellent reference that is written in a clear, comprehensive manner, Communicating School Finance focuses on how to build budgets, how the principal affects the budget, and how the principal communicates the budget to the staff. It provides real-life examples that will guide school officials through the often incomprehensible maze of school funding. "Dr. Charles Waggoner has a wealth of successful experience from which to draw. Resourceful and very well read, Chuck has guided the financial fortunes of several districts with expediency and appropriate frugalness. This book is like a friend talking to the reader. Tells 'em all they need to know and doesn't scare them off or put them to sleep. Prospective principals should find it very useful without being overly labored." -Roger Icenogle, ex-principal and assistant regional superintendent of schools. "Chuck Waggoner is a financial genius." -Fred Abel, former professor of education
Download or read book Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-02-12 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spending on K-12 education across the United States and across local school districts has long been characterized by great disparitiesâ€"disparities that reflect differences in property wealth and tax rates. For more than a quarter-century, reformers have attempted to reduce these differences through court challenges and legislative action. As part of a broad study of education finance, the committee commissioned eight papers examining the history and consequences of school finance reform undertaken in the name of equity and adequacy. This thought-provoking, timely collection of papers explores such topics as: What do the terms "equity" and "adequacy" in school finance really mean? How are these terms relevant to the politics and litigation of school finance reform? What is the impact of court-ordered school finance reform on spending disparities? How do school districts use money from finance reform? What policy options are available to states facing new challenges from court decisions mandating adequacy in school finance? When measuring adequacy, how do you consider differences in student needs and regional costs?
Download or read book Learning in Public written by Courtney E. Martin and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "provocative and personally searching"memoir follows one mother's story of enrolling her daughter in a local public school (San Francisco Chronicle), and the surprising, necessary lessons she learned with her neighbors. From the time Courtney E. Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her chest for long walks, she was curious about Emerson Elementary, a public school down the street from her Oakland home. She learned that White families in their gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school. As she began asking why, a journey of a thousand moral miles began. Learning in Public is the story, not just Courtney’s journey, but a whole country’s. Many of us are newly awakened to the continuing racial injustice all around us, but unsure of how to go beyond hashtags and yard signs to be a part of transforming the country. Courtney discovers that her public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, is a powerful place to dig deeper. Courtney E. Martin examines her own fears, assumptions, and conversations with other moms and dads as they navigate school choice. A vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself. Learning in Public might also set your family’s life on a different course forever.
Download or read book Performance Funding for Higher Education written by Kevin J. Dougherty and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ultimately, the authors recommend that states create new ways of helping colleges with many at-risk students, define performance indicators and measures better tailored to institutional missions, and improve the capacity of colleges to engage in organizational learning.
Download or read book Funds of Knowledge written by Norma Gonzalez and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.
Download or read book Developments in School Finance written by William J. Fowler and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1998-05 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains papers by state education dept. policymakers, analysts, and data providers on emerging issues in school finance. Includes: estimates of disparities and analysis of the causes of expenditures in public school districts; race, poverty and the student curriculum; court-ordered school finance equalization; resource allocation to schools under conditions of radical decentralization; building equity and effectiveness into school-based funding models; alternative options for deflating education expenditures over time; productivity collapse in schools; and evaluating the effect of teacher degree level on educational performance.
Download or read book All Children Can Learn written by Roger S. Pankratz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-02-28 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now educators, school board members, and policymakers can refer to a single volume for key lessons from the nation's most comprehensive and longest-running school reform model. Written by a nationally prominent group of educators, researchers, and policy analysts, All Children Can Learnpresents important research findings from the Kentucky reforms, examines major program elements, and analyzes initiatives that worked or didn't work. Throughout the book, the authors explore the challenges of implementing statewide school change initiatives, offer sound advice for overcoming reform hurdles, and share valuable recommendations for future policy and practice. Reform-minded educators from every type of community will find valuable insights as they contemplate similar changes.
Download or read book Why Didn t They Teach Me this in School written by Cary Siegel and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2013 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do high schools and colleges require students to take courses in English, math and science, yet have absolutely no requirements for students to learn about personal money management?Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School? 99 Personal Money Management Lessons to Live By was initially developed by the author to pass on to his five children as they entered adulthood. As it developed, the author realized that personal money management skills were rarely taught in high schools, colleges and even in MBA programs. Unfortunately, books on the subject tend to be complicated, lengthy reads. The book includes eight important lessons focusing on 99 principles that will quickly and memorably enhance any individual's money management acumen. Unlike many of the personal money management books out there, this book is a quick, easily digested read that focuses more on the qualitative side than the quantitative side of personal money management. The principles are not from a text book. Rather, they are practical principles learned by the author as he navigated through his financial life. Many are unorthodox in order to be memorable and provoke deeper thought by the reader.
Download or read book Academically Adrift written by Richard Arum and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there? For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list. Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents—all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa’s report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.
Download or read book Hard Lessons written by Carol Ascher and published by Century Foundation Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, the second in the Twentieth Century Fund's series of studies on the privatization of public services, finds that current arguments for privatizing schools are based on wishful thinking. After examining what the actual experience has been with privatization around the country, Hard Lessons concludes that the promise of saving money and improving educational quality through privatization is, at minimum, being oversold. While this report is likely to be disputed by those who have a strong attachment to the notion that privatizing always improves output--and by those with a financial stake in the for-profit school " industry" --it will be an important part of the ongoing debate. The report, which focuses on big city schools, argues that while the magic wand of privatization must be abandoned, the efforts to solve the problems facing our nation's urban schools must continue; there are hard questions to be asked, new solutions to be tried, and the case must continually be made for new resources for our public schools, even in today's political climate.
Download or read book Weekly Reader Summer Express Between Grades Prek K Workbook written by Scholastic Teaching Resources and published by Teaching Resources. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fun and engaging activity pages that reinforce the alphabet, reading, writing, phonics, math skills, and more, and prepare preschoolers for kindergarten! From the editors of Weekly Reader.
Download or read book Sound School Finance for Educational Excellence written by Stephen V. Coffin and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sound school finance is integral to the provision of a quality education. Indeed, a school district’s budget is the financial representation of its educational plan. Thus, a clarion alert for all teachers: “if it’s not in your budget, it won’t be in your classroom.” However, sound school finance is increasingly challenging in an era of scarce resources. This book provides an in-depth understanding of fundamental practices, processes, and lessons learned will benefit not only all school administrators, personnel, parents, students, and other stakeholders, but also undergird the provision of an excellent education. This book will focus on key building blocks essential for the provision of an excellent education. The value proposition inherent in this book works well for all schools, districts, students, and school stakeholders regardless of location, type, and demographic mix. The components of sound school finance that are increasingly important in an era of scarce financial, material, and human resources are provided in this book.
Download or read book School Funding Formulas written by Jennifer Imazeki and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
