Facing a declining K-12 student population and rising education costs, Vermont lawmakers approved Act 46 in 2015. This legislation has the potential to consolidate school districts that have fewer than 900 students. The law aims to significantly reduce the number of districts in the state by using tax incentives as a carrot and forced…

Kansas ranks 10th in the nation on an average of 15 indicators of student success, but has been improving much slower than most states. Since 2008, total funding per pupil in Kansas has increased less than half as much as the U.S. average, and less than one-quarter as much as the top achieving states. "There is growing evidence that as Kansas…

This study examines district-run and charter schools in Oakland across three dimensions: (1) student need (2) resource levels, and (3) resource use. We analyzed data for the 2014-15 school year from every school run by Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), as well as 32 charter schools, which serve 88% of all the charter school students in…

States and districts are embarking on efforts to improve school leadership as a lever to promote school improvement. Such efforts have a solid base of research attesting to their effectiveness, and some view them as particularly cost-effective because principals "can be powerful multipliers of effective teaching and leadership practices in…

The purpose of this three-essay dissertation is to explore important topics in higher education. In 2010, the Department of Education proposed the controversial Gainful Employment (GE) Regulations that represent a major shift in federal policy and raises the question of the future of higher education. Under GE, certain institutions, mainly…

The data presented in this combined report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis.…

As chairman of Oregon's Senate Education Committee, Mark Hass kept hearing about the growing population of unemployed young adults age 24 and younger who had no education beyond high school. Until now, cost has prevented many high school graduates from even exploring a higher education. Hass is sponsoring a bill that would enable recent high…

As K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) local education agencies (LEAs) face continued fiscal pressure, noninstructional service consolidation advocates point to states like Florida, with its countywide school systems, as an example of LEAs exploiting scale economies to reduce per-pupil spending, especially in administration and other…

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is a major source of economic activity within the County with these benefits extending across the State of Maryland. These economic benefits result from MCPS's annual expenditures for new facilities, its outlays for repairs and maintenance, and its spending in support of program and facility operations.…

The affordability of private education is a contentious issue. While the extent of "low-cost" private schooling is widely accepted, there is no agreement on what "low-cost" means in this context and how this relates to affordability for poor families. This paper addresses the lacuna in the literature by defining…

The final 2016 report provides the most comprehensive analysis of endowment investment returns, asset allocations, and governance policies and practices at 805 U.S. higher education institutions and affiliated foundations. The report provides extensive data to help institutions evaluate their investment returns and compare results by endowment…

Every school budget tells a story--about a district's spending plan, its priorities, goals, and financial health. The challenge is to wade through the jargon and numbers to unlock that story. Although budgets can vary significantly from district to district, and state to state, this primer seeks to introduce reporters to the fundamental components…

In this investigation, the effect of instructional expenditure ratio grouping on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills Reading, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Writing test passing rates for students in poverty was examined. Data were obtained from the Texas Education Agency on all Texas high school students for the 2006-2007…

An increasing number of policy makers in developing countries have made the mass expansion of upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) a top priority. The goal of this study is to examine whether VET fulfills these objectives of building skills and abilities along multiple dimensions and further identify which school-level factors…

In the spring of 2016, the National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC), the Colorado League of Charter Schools (the League), the Delaware Charter Schools Network (DCSN), and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (the Alliance) collaborated to collect data and information about charter school facilities and facilities expenditures in…