In addition to setting high standards for student performance, educational policies must consider what resources are essential to provide an adequate educational program to meet all students' learning needs. Policy makers also want to ensure that educators make efficient use of available resources. In this exploration of school finance policy, we…

Promoting efficient energy use in schools that consequently reduces greenhouse gas emissions is the purpose of a residential Energy Efficiency in Schools (EEIS) program reported on in this paper. Research on this program aligns with one of the "key "overarching" sustainability issues", set out in the "Learning for…

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) is an independent, nonprofit research center based in Washington, DC that is dedicated to researching public policy and economic issues relating to postsecondary education. CCAP aims to facilitate a broader dialogue that challenges conventional thinking about costs, efficiency and…

Almost everyone agrees that colleges have become costly to attend and are a growing burden on society to finance. Rising tuition costs threaten the ability and desire of students to attend college. Are there things that can be done to significantly reduce the cost of college? The answer is an emphatic "yes." The Center for College Affordability…

This document contains testimony made by Linda G. Morra, Director of Education and Employment Issues, Health, Education, and Human Services Division regarding the congressional proposal to merge the current Departments of Education and Labor into a new Department of Education and Employment. The proposal would also merge Equal Employment…

This study examined the concurrent validity and diagnostic efficiency of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) with 75 elementary and middle school students with learning disabilities, who had been referred for triennial multidisciplinary re-evaluations. High and significant correlations were found between the K-BIT and the Wechsler…

This report discusses trends in education funding over a 40-year period (1950-1990); describes how education dollars are spent; identifies reasons for increases in the cost of education; and offers some observations on the education productivity problem. It also addresses equity issues at both K-12 and postsecondary levels and suggests ways to…

This selective view of American educational history is intended primarily to demonstrate how educational change has been pursued almost exclusively as a means to the greater efficiency of students, society, or schools. Even as far back as Colonial days, Americans have usually tried to reform schools by increasing their practicality, i.e., their…

This report is the result of a 1995 national mail survey of state special education administrators concerning mechanisms used by states to fund special education services for school-age children with disabilities and the costs to provide these services. All 50 states and the District of Columbia responded to the survey. Part 1 contains three…

This case study concerns the 1992 Maryland legislation which granted St. Mary's College, a Public Honors College, a lump sum budget and exemption from most normal state controls. In return, there was an institutional agreement to cap state tax support at an agreed upon level and to use money from tuition increases to fund low income students. This…

Three studies of five seventh-grade students (ages 12-14) with emotional disturbances were conducted to determine whether a stimulus class would emerge as a result of one conditional discrimination training using direct instruction (implemented with a constant time delay) augmented with instructive feedback. The students were taught to identify…

This study investigated the effects of presenting future target behaviors in the consequent event following correct responses of current target behaviors when teaching five preschoolers with developmental delays to name numerals. A 3-second constant time delay procedure was used to train two sets of numerals. During instruction, correct responses…

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is an objective statistical technique for discovering the comparative ranking of organizations with respect to their efficiency. The technique, which assesses the relationship between resources (inputs) and outcomes (outputs) may also be used to discover what variables make organizations effective and efficient in…

This book is the culmination of extensive discussion among a panel of economists led by Eric A. Hanushek. The panel argues that improvement of schools depends more on better uses of resources than on the provision of added funds. The book outlines a plan to improve school performance without increasing expenditures. Specifically, it calls for more…

Jurisdictional consolidation of local governments and school districts is a controversial and persistent subject for rural communities. Consolidation proposals are usually based on the assumption that larger jurisdictions are necessary to capture economies of scale. This paper argues that the effect of size depends on the function that a…