Purpose: Increased school autonomy and accountability have been a common denominator of national reforms in otherwise heterogeneous governance systems in Europe and the USA. The paper argues that because schools serving disadvantaged communities (SSDCs) often have lower average performance, they are more often sanctioned or under closer scrutiny,…

The quality of school principals is of paramount importance for quality education. This article examines the leadership capacities of a group of 228 aspiring principals who participated in a training programme for the principalship in four cohorts. A questionnaire consisting of 24 questions in six core areas of leadership was constructed and…

For over a decade, Education Resource Strategies, Inc. (ERS) has helped leaders of urban school districts strategically reallocate their resources to improve student performance. This work identifies seven Core Transformational Strategies that support high-performing schools; in high-functioning districts, resources (people, time, and money) are…

Strategic School Funding for Results (SSFR) interviews in Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) took place in October 2009. Three key district officials were interviewed, and five principals (representing elementary, middle, and high schools) participated in a focus group. District officials were chosen for interviews because of their key…

This article investigates budget monitoring and control in township schools in South Africa. The enactment of the Schools Act 1996 revolutionized school financial management in South Africa, making it part of the drive for democratic school governance. School governing bodies had to be established, whose responsibility it became to manage finances…

Following the proposal of the Chancellor of the California Community to shift from attendance-based funding to performance-based funding, Palomar College (California) has articulated its intention to judge its quality and formulate its policies primarily on learning outcomes. Out of this imperative, the Assessment of Learning Project (ALP) was…

In 1976 a questionnaire designed to gather information about methods to determine the allocation of staff within tertiary institutions in Australia was mailed to universities and colleges. The results are discussed including methods of allocation, student-load/staff ratios, staff contact hours, and sabbatical and study leave provisions. (MLW)

This School Personnel Utilization battery is designed to help evaluate school staffing models (see TM 001 210). The battery itself contains three instruments. A Components Analysis instrument was devised to study the question of comprehensiveness. The second instrument, a Constraints Checklist, was developed to determine the extent to which the…

This paper discusses a technique for evaluating the comprehensiveness, feasibility and viability of project models. The developed technique is based on the assumption that a school staffing model is an organizational pattern demonstrating certain specific characteristics. A method for describing these characteristics has also been developed as a…