Although a great deal of debate surrounds the level and allocation of resources to public schools, very little of this discussion addresses how schools might organize teaching resources more effectively at the school level. This paper describes case studies of five high performing public schools that have organized professional resources in…

Competition for mental health funding among advocates for treatment, prevention, and research often produces more tension than productivity. Competition is fueled by dependency on varied streams of funding and lack of coherent connections and coordination among the host of public and private agents involved in addressing child and adolescent…

This report attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of total federal financial support for education since fiscal year (FY) 1980, the year the U.S. Department of Education was created. Programs residing in other federal agencies are included in order to account fully for all federal education expenditures. Federal support for education,…

This document contains papers from the Annual State Data Conference and includes the following: (1) "Does Money Matter for Minority and Disadvantaged Students? Assessing the New Empirical Evidence" (David Grissmer, Ann Flanagan, and Stephanie Williamson), which demonstrates that additional money matters for minority and disadvantaged…

This report was created with the goal of showing how California Community College districts have been using their funds from the Partnership For Excellence during the 2002-03 fiscal year. The report is based upon the individual findings of 108 colleges which was gathered through an online survey that asked each district to report data on the…

This study investigated differences in per-pupil spending between districts with the greatest number of poor and minority students and those with the fewest poor and minority students. It analyzed a specially-constructed database containing demographic and finance data for over 15,000 school districts in 1999-00. The analysis included state and…

This report contains budgetary and financial information from Wisconsin's 16 technical colleges for the 1998-99 fiscal year. During this fiscal year, the Technical College System enrolled 442,274 students by headcount and 57,667 FTE students. The total operational cost was $604 million with an average cost per student of $1,366 and an average cost…

This report summarizes enrollment, financing, programs, and staff data in the 16 colleges of the Wisconsin Technical College System. Total headcount enrollment for fiscal year 1998-99 was 442,274 and total FTE enrollment was 57,667. During this fiscal year, 15,365 degrees and diplomas were awarded. Total operational cost was $604 million. The WTCS…

A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a school where administrators and teachers continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students and act on what they learn. PLCs are characterized by five dimensions: shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application of learning,…

California state law requires a sponsoring agency to determine whether charter schools nearing the end of their term should have their charters renewed. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was one of the first to grant charter school status, and consequently among the first to renew school charters. The district contracted with WestEd, a…

This report describes the 1999 legislation affecting Oregon's K-12 school finance system. The first section summarizes state appropriations and local revenue estimates for 1999-01. The second section describes modifications to the allocation of the State School Fund among school districts and Education Service Districts. The last section reports…

Teaching all students to high standards may not be achievable with the way the vast bulk of schools in the United States are organized and managed. Under current school structures and management practices, marginal improvements are possible; significantly raising student achievement is not. Accomplishing this requires dramatic improvements that…

This paper summarizes major findings from a doctoral study of the economic rationale for closing rural and metropolitan schools in South Australia. It is evident that some communities in South Australia have had their local school closed and some have not. Some receive greater levels of funding than others. This thesis research examines the…

Prominent among the new models of social service delivery are organizations providing comprehensive, community-based supports and services (CCBSS) to children and their families. A needs analysis explored CCBSS sites' interest in and readiness to use a software tool designed to help them make more effective internal resource allocation decisions…

So that New York City could build on the experiences of other large cities as it implemented Performance Driven Budgeting (PDB) in the schools, a study was conducted of the school based budgeting training in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Denver. These districts have from 6 to 10 years experience in site-based budgeting. The study is based on…