Recent reports have highlighted the inequalities that exist in how state and federal funding is allocated to different institution types and the students they serve (Ahlman, 2019; Carnevale et al., 2018; Foster & Fowles, 2018; Mugglestone et al., 2019; Taylor & Cantwell, 2019; Taylor et al., 2020). Because these different types of…

Background: In recent years, there has been generalized concern in all countries about increasing the younger population's level of financial literacy. However, there is still little evidence on the key factors explaining financial literacy, as the existing literature is inconclusive about this issue. This paper focuses on exploring whether…

This study provides empirical insights into the impact of research productivity on Africa's productive capacity, contingent upon government education expenditure. Using a panel of 52 African countries from 2010 to 2022, the dynamic system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation technique was employed as a robust alternative to Pooled OLS.…

Background/purpose: Education has been heralded as a transformative tool essential for both individual and national development. Despite free education's aim to provide equitable access, significant gaps remain, particularly regarding financial stability, academic support, and living conditions. This study reports on the challenges of free…

State takeovers of school districts--a form of political centralization that shifts decision-making power from locally elected leaders to the state--have increased over time, often with the purported goal of improving district financial condition. Takeover has affected millions of students since the first takeover in 1988 and has been more common…

This study uses fiscal data reported by traditional public school districts between 2000 and 2017 to generate descriptive estimates of the relationship between the local market share of independent charter schools and the finances of host school districts in twenty-one states. The research questions for the study are as follows: (1) On average,…

The article describes enrollment, retention, and institutional expenditures on instruction, academic support, and student services at community colleges in Tennessee and Oregon after these states implemented Promise scholarship programs. This article highlights that college attendance and choice among recent high school graduates changed after the…

While COVID-19 caused unimaginable disruptions to public education, we saw remarkable examples of innovation and commitment to supporting high school student success. In our New England landscape of learning research, we learned that the boundaries of what it means to "reinvent" high school stretched, and in some systems, the momentum…

Sense of belonging is an important psychological and social factor for college students. Students who report a strong sense of belonging to an institution are more likely to return the next year (Hausmann et al., 2007), stay in school (Fine, 1991), graduate (Morrow & Ackermann, 2012), learn (Kernahan et al., 2014), thrive (Strayhorn, 2019),…

Since its inception in 1993, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program has produced over 200,000 graduates across dozens of sites located in the states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Currently, the program operates 39 sites. House Report 117-88, accompanying the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2022, included…

Locally-elected school boards have wide discretion over allocating money among the schools in their district, yet we know relatively little about how they decide "which schools get what." I argue that electoral incentives are one factor that can influence the distribution of resources: board members will direct spending toward schools…

With close to a million Texas students attending rural schools, research on what influences student achievement is needed to guide policy, practice, and further research. Building on research relating student demographic variables and per student spending in rural schools to student achievement, through this dissertation research I used…

Arizona shifted to using current-year enrollment, instead of prior-year enrollment, as the basis for determining state aid for school districts following the passage of Arizona Education Finance Amendment (AEFA) in 2017. This study examines the short-term effects of AEFA implementation on school inputs--namely, expenditures and district personnel,…

This dissertation comprises an examination of how school districts have allocated the resources they received as a result of the Illinois Evidenced-Based Funding (EBF) for Student Success law. The law was passed in 2017 with the rationale of providing additional resources to school districts based on evidenced-based approaches, with the vast…

This program memorandum conveys to States the Biden-Harris Administration's priorities, State Plan requirements, submission process, and deadline for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Unified and Combined State Plans (State Plans) for Program Years (PYs) 2024 through 2027, consistent with WIOA Sections 102 and 103.