Presents an annotated bibliography intended to inform nonspecialists of microeconomic research in poor countries. Six areas of research are discussed: household economics, health/nutrition and income, poverty measurement and analysis, agrarian technological change and labor markets. The section on labor markets also discusses saving, credit, and…

Data on 1990, 1991, and 1992 spending by the Department of Education and other federal agencies include dollar amounts of student assistance, graduate support, institutional assistance, bilingual education, library resources, aid to disadvantaged, education research and statistics, handicapped education, scientific research, health research and…

Despite low teacher salaries and per-pupil expenditures relative to other states, South Dakota ranks high in several measures of student performance, including standardized test scores and high school graduation rate. Attributes the state's educational achievement to strong, stable families, small schools that are community centers, and…

Describes efforts by academic libraries in Virginia to increase resource sharing through new technological developments. Highlights include cooperative collection development; software designed for resource sharing; regional electronic resources centers; workstations; interfaces to connect online catalogs; patron-initiated interlibrary loans; and…

This abstract of a report from a study commissioned by the Millbrook Press discusses changes in school library media centers based on interviews with librarians and administrators. Topics discussed include student enrollments, budgets, library staffing, utilization of the librarian, curriculum planning, administration attitudes, book collections,…

Excerpts from testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources regarding the proposed Technology for Education Act highlights the need for strong school library media collections and programs in addition to the latest technology. Highlights include funding, expenditures, media centers and student achievement, librarians'…

Discusses the issue of access versus ownership of academic library materials necessitated by rising costs, declining budgets, and increased scholarly production. Highlights include technological advances in resource sharing; performance criteria for access; costs; speed (user expectations, turnaround times); and reliability (fill rates of…

Public school enrollment is increasing, especially among minority students. Preschool attendance is up. The number of elementary schools has lagged behind enrollment and school size. Teacher numbers and salaries have risen since the 1980s. Local school revenues are surpassing state government revenues. The national per pupil expenditure rate is…

Inferences that spending money (high average per pupil expenditure) does not improve education are questioned because of obvious differences in cost of living; in-state differences; differences in costs and demographic differences; and comparing average measures with measures from a nonrandom sample (Scholastic Aptitude Test scores). (SLD)

Provides national data on enrollments, teachers, graduates, degrees, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2010. Also includes state-level projections of public elementary and secondary school enrollment and public high school graduates. Projections were produced by the National Center for Education Statistics.…

Presents results of the latest biennial survey of school library funding. Highlights include funding sources; expenditures; currency of collections; technology; library staff and training; programs and services; media specialists' experience and salaries; instructional planning with teachers; and district level leadership. (LRW)

Analyzes unique within district variations in spending and achievement among urban public elementary schools (n=89). Reveals considerable disparities in spending linked to local patterns of racial and class stratification and concentration. Shows how these local driven inequalities have consequences for achievement in reading, writing,…

This article breaks new ground in the debate on school finance and equality of per pupil school expenditures. We are able to merge school district data with the individual and family data of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). This allows us to examine both student and school district characteristics and to assess several measures of…

In response to ongoing court battles regarding the adequacy and equity of Arkansas' education system, the state's lawmakers have effected school reforms in many areas over the past few years, including nearly a 30 percent increase in educational expenditures from 2003-04 to 2004-05. The authors distributed a confidential survey to all 254 school…

This paper contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of schools. The analysis is unique in using data on the minutes of instruction per day in each of four subjects taught in the public elementary schools in Illinois. Few education production function papers have information on the amount of instruction students receive in a given…