States, districts and schools are now being offered unprecedented opportunities to develop programs that will improve student performance and turn around underperforming schools. An understanding of how reducing chronic early absence helps those efforts will go a long way to assure that innovative school improvement policies and practices will be…

School leaders are often placed on the "hot seat" when negative images of the school, its staff, or its students appear in the local media. Such reports can strongly affect a school's public and image and, in turn, impact the climate both in the community and within the school itself. Sometimes these perceptions are not based on fact; however,…

The Forum's 16th annual report on public schooling in Southeastern Wisconsin reveals that spending increased 4% in Southeastern Wisconsin school districts to $2.8 billion last year, although the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) experienced a significantly smaller increase (2.7%). Part of this relatively small increase can be attributed to the…