The author, as a school administrator, wrote this article to describe an effective collaboration with several universities on research projects that benefit both institutions. The outcomes described here focus on the process involved in such collaborations and the benefits to the school district these collaborations can create. Directed toward…

Nationally, 28 percent of all public elementary and secondary schools were in rural locations in 2013-14, serving 18 percent of all K-12 students (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2015). Rural schools serve students in sparsely populated areas and have smaller overall populations than schools in other…

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). As described in the CPRE proposal and research design, the purpose was to closely…

This brief is intended to provide State Education Agency (SEA) and Local Education Agency (LEA) educators with a brief overview of key components of GraduateFIRST, a Georgia program targeting issues impacting school completion for students with disabilities. Georgia's GraduateFIRST program has redefined the state's approach to raising graduation…

This book, a collection of six papers by different authors, examines grants consolidation or the combining of several categorical programs into a single broader category serving the same target populations. According to the book, grants consolidation is seen as a possible compromise between the extremes of narrow categorical aid and unrestricted…

This paper points out that the assignment of individuals to serve sub-units of an organization is one of the significant problems which must be faced by administrators and supervisors of school psychology and school social work services. It then describes the development and implementation of a simple weighted proportion procedure for estimating…

The reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA") as amended by the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB") relied on two notable policy instruments to improve education: accountability and flexibility. "NCLB" complements accountability with several new flexibility…

This study analyzes the process used in developing the 1977-78 operating budget of the Philadelphia school district. The purpose of the study was to determine what changes are required to assure greater efficiency and effectiveness in resource allocations in the face of increasingly scarce funds available to urban public school systems. Using a…

In the standards-based education reforms of today, an important question is how much it will cost for all--or almost all--students to reach state-determined proficiency levels? School finance adequacy seeks to determine that cost. Four models have been developed to estimate the costs of adequacy. Two of them--the professional judgment and the…

This primer introduces the basics of Program Management and Budgeting (PMB) in an effort to demonstrate how PMB can benefit school systems. Short quotes from previous publications on the topic are paired with cartoons designed to clarify the purposes and workings of the program. The publication begins by defining PMB as an alternative financial…

For those concerned with school improvement, resource-oriented mechanisms are a critical facet of efforts to transform and restructure daily operations. Resource-oriented organizational mechanisms focus specifically on ensuring the appropriate use of existing resources and enhancing efforts to address barriers to student learning. This report…

This State of Mississippi annual evaluation report on programs, projects, services, and activities funded in whole or in part under Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I is organized into 10 parts. Part 1 is an "Introduction." Part 2 specifies the "Number of School Districts and Participants.""Total Allocation and…

Planning-programing-budgeting systems (PPBS) have borne few of the fruits that many claimed they would. This is partly due to the five following widely held misconceptions about PPBS: 1) that PPBS is primarily concerned with budgeting; 2) that PPBS should displace instructional goals; 3) that it is not necessary to attend to all elements of PPBS;…

This volume contains two reports whose aim is the improvement of the resource allocation system for public schools in Washington, D.C. The first report is a description of issues to be considered and decisions required for developing a resource allocation plan for equalization of aid. Information dealing with the history of school finance reform,…

As a base for evaluating the need for further federal involvement in school finance, this study examines changes that have taken place in the distribution of resources within the states. It examines the effectiveness of school finance reform solely in terms of results--the resource levels made available in the school districts of a state and the…