The North Carolina End of Course (EOC) tests were initiated in response to legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly--the North Carolina Elementary and Secondary Reform Act of 1984. This act mandates the implementation of the Basic Education Program through the establishment of a core curriculum for all students for each content…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the actions taken on new charter school petitions or proposals. This report offers a summary of charter school activity in the 426 Wisconsin school districts during the 2002-2003 school year. The data is based upon an electronic survey administered by the Wisconsin Department of Public…

On Nov. 8, 2005, California voters will decide whether to pass Proposition 76, known as the "Live Within Our Means Act." Sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the measure seeks to address state budget problems that have been particularly severe in California since 2002 due to cuts in state taxes and increases in state expenditures.…

This review of the Brown Act and other open-meetings laws in California has been prepared to assist school-board members in understanding the intent as well as the letter of the law governing deliberations and actions taken by school-board members in board meetings. This volume, published in 1999 to reflect the most current--at that time--changes…

Individual states have a long tradition of providing financial support for their public K-12 schools. This support reflects the state's constitutional requirement to educate its citizens. However, states vary widely in both the amount of funding provided to public schools, and the distribution of funding among schools. The fundamental observation…

This Policy Alert updates a 1999 report by Harold Hovey, State Spending for Higher Education in the Next Decade: The Battle to Sustain Current Support, and two earlier Policy Alerts: State Shortfalls Projected Despite Current Fiscal Prosperity (February 2000) and State Shortfalls Projected Throughout the Decade (February 2003), all available at…

In this study, Kentucky elementary school teachers provided feedback concerning the state's school reform process after 13 years of implementing the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA). Five counties were randomly selected out of twenty-four in western Kentucky, with one school chosen from each county. Elementary teachers who had taught…

Since the emergence of teacher unionization in the 1960s, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have monopolized the market for teacher representation services. Competition against NEA/AFT would directly benefit teachers and indirectly benefit the school choice movement. This analysis argues that…

There continues to be a significant debate as to the most effective means of providing North Carolina's children with the best possible education. The one point upon which a great majority agree is that, despite substantial increases in funding, public education is not meeting the needs of a large proportion of the state's students. This paper…

This publication explains how Missouri school districts should develop their curriculum guides and outlines processes for aligning curricula with Show Me Standards mandated by the Outstanding Schools Act (1993) and the Missouri School Improvement Program. The challenge for educators is to build relationships among all six kinds of curriculum…

This report presents information from four studies that investigated factors decision makers considered when transferring cases from the juvenile to the criminal justice system. All states have legal mechanisms whereby some juveniles may be transferred from the juvenile to the criminal justice system for prosecution. These decisions fall into…

The consequences of the 1971 California Supreme Court decision "Serrano vs. Priest," in which the court sought to level disparities in school expenditure, and of the 1978 Proposition 13 property tax limitations are examined. The book concludes that changing the way California finances schools without changing the way it governs them has…

This report is based on information collected from state revenue departments, budget offices, and legislative staff on tax revenue during the 3-month period from October to December 2000 compared with the same period in 1999. Comparing tax revenue between the two periods produced the following results: the slowest growth in 7 years (4 percent), a…

This study analyzed federal and state charter school laws, addressing challenges faced by charter school startups nationwide, state resources available to address these challenges, and how the District of Columbia compares in terms of charter school challenges and resources. Data came from interviews with Department of Education officials, charter…

At first glance, charter districts seem to offer an inventive way to conduct the business of schooling. While charter schools extend a new, but relatively small, building-focused alternative to educational consumers, charter districts have the potential to free public education at a much larger level and with a more comprehensive scope. This paper…