Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require…

States should strive for national, and increasingly international, standards in education. States that set educational goals will need to know what indicators of progress will signal to citizens, educators, and government leaders that they are moving toward or reaching those goals. In a separate report, the Southern Regional Education Board has…

State-level funding formulas should be changed from enrollment-based to fixed cost-based, using standards such as those of the Association of Research Libraries. Funding linked with programmatic changes encourages quality of the institution and rewards effective library management. (CDD)

The belief that fiscal support of a postsecondary institution is directly related to its overall excellence has been generally accepted and used as an argument when seeking funds for achieving excellence. Problems arise, however, in citing specific data to substantiate this claim. To determine the effect of changes in fiscal support on the quality…

Legal issues relating to field-based experiences in teacher education are discussed, and results of a survey of state statutes pertaining to field experience programs are given. State legislatures, institutions, and administrative agencies have not sufficiently addressed the need for providing high-quality field experiences for student teachers.…

The desire to create an effective cost of education index (CEI) arises from a desire to achieve greater equity in state and federal school funding mechanisms. Before such a measure is useful, however, much more thought must be given to the specification of factors differentially affecting demand and supply. Consensus regarding classification of…

This report examines the issue of faculty workload within the context of rising educational costs and educational demand and its impact on quality and access. Research on the questions of how hard faculty work, what they do with that working time, and especially how much time is spent in the classroom is discussed. Faculty workload studies are…

This report defines policy and practices for child care assistance for welfare recipients in New York, and explores ways in which the state could use the newly enacted federal welfare reform legislation to create opportunities for children of welfare recipients. The six sections of the report are based on a survey of child care policies and…

Describes the current status of California's community colleges and reviews predictions for the future. Indicates that innovation, change, the quality movement, and technology will be key players in the colleges' future. Discusses "Choosing the Future," a controversial report by the Commission on Innovation to the state Board of…

This volume analyzes government policies for helping students pay for education beyond high school and was developed as a result of an October 1994 gathering of policymakers, analysts, and practitioners convened to review federal student assistance and to consider policy alternatives for the Clinton Administration. Chapter 1, "A Fifty-Year…

In the United States, society and individuals share the expenses of collegiate education, making it possible to provide higher education for a much larger percentage of youth than in many countries. At the same time, maintenance of low tuitions through public subsidies has provided reasonable assurance of accessibility and equality of public…

Tailored-for-industry programs like South Carolina's Special Schools and Minnesota's New Jobs raise questions concerning the effectiveness of such programs in creating jobs and their influence on future local and national education policy. Almost every state has a subsidized for-industry program which trains workers for new or expanding industries…

This report represents the State Board of Education's recommended FY 2007 budget as adopted by the Board on January 17, 2006. This budget supports the important work of Vermont's education system as the state invests in its future to help all Vermont students to achieve success. The FY 2007 budget proposal increases General Fund amounts by 6.15…

This paper explores the state role in enhancing teaching and learning in colleges and universities particularly focusing on the relatively recent attempts by states to increase attention to quality and to initiate activities to define, measure, and fund quality in education. The paper begins by exploring the growing state interest in quality, the…

This document, which is based on information supplied by state vocational administrators from across the United States, presents information that is intended to help state policymakers make more informed decisions about vocational education funding. Different funding formulas and funding levels are presented to illustrate the approaches that…