Schools face the dual challenge of tighter education budgets and demands to raise achievement levels. Can this be done? The author argues that it can and has been achieved. The successful districts in some cases have transformed their strategic approach by focusing on costs; developing a new, more powerful school vision; identifying and allocating…

School finance is once again a hot topic across the country. Despite the current turmoil in education finance, reform remains a priority at both the state and federal levels. This report examines the school finance issue and proposes that education funding be tied more closely to systemic reform initiatives. It next describes past trends in school…

Investigates alternative measures of school district wealth, focusing on the issue of intergovernmental aid (particularly equalization aid), arguments for and against different wealth measures, jurisdictional implications of the use of alternative wealth measures in four states, and the effect of alternative wealth measures on state equalization…

Chapter 1, "Step 1: The Change Process," focuses on the change process and describes why and how schools engage in program restructuring and resource allocation. Chapter 2, "Step 2: Defining a New Educational Strategy," discusses decisions that must be made about the regular education program and how the various schools adopted, adapted or created…

Proposes both low-cost strategies (administrator academies, teacher institutes, school improvement projects, information dissemination programs) and high-cost strategies (teacher compensation, longer school day and year, greater reliance on technology) for improving educational quality. The author concludes with a discussion of educational…