An Alberta school district that used a cost-recovery model to finance school services for 20 years is finding that the model produces unintended negative results. Some schools didn't spend this money on services but used it for other school operations. Some spent the money on external consultants. Professional relationships were damaged, and…

Performance pay can be implemented in ways that are helpful to students and teachers, or it can repeat the mistakes of the past. To avoid these mistakes, initiatives must address the district factors that affect schools. There are six cornerstones for compensation reform: 1) Performance-based compensation is a systemic reform; 2) Compensation…

Myles Brand is a person of unquestioned integrity and high principle. As president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), he has been asked to fend off an unruly mob with a switch. In the present environment for collegiate sports, his chances for success are slight, at best. What Brand and the NCAA face today is a very real "arms…

The Money Myth is the contention that any education problem requires increased spending and, conversely, that reform is impossible without more funding. However, increased funding works for only certain kinds of school resources. Many reforms require resources that money cannot buy. What is needed are reforms that build the capacity of schools to…

Neither the proponents of district-based reforms nor supporters of choice and competition can claim that their solutions have produced the schools that we want. To move forward, we must shake off assumptions that tried-and-true responses will deliver the reforms that schools need. To achieve the desired results will require fostering the…

By the end of fourth grade, African American and Latino students, are two years behind their wealthier, predominantly white peers in reading and math. By eighth grade, they have slipped three years behind, and by 12th grade, the gap is full four years. These are just two examples of the most alarming figures that threaten the educational equity of…

The increased high expectations for student performance has led to greater pressures on school resources. While most families support the idea of quality schools for all students, adequate funding has not matched these high expectations. The vast majority of families are increasingly unable to vote in those additional resources due to a radical…

Discusses the Education Collaborative for Greater Boston (EDCO), an organization founded on the assumption that urban and suburban schools can best solve their problems through joint cooperation. (LR)

Reply to an article printed in the April issue. (IRT)

To school business managers, the energy crisis is a continuing economic disaster as energy costs continue to climb and schools are without money to make necessary renovations to reduce energy consumption. (Author/IRT)

The research used to bolster former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett's contention that spending does not affect student achievement was a 1986 article by Eric Hanushek. A reanalysis of Hanushek's data contradicts Bennett's claim. Because of the attenuation problem, the spending-achievement correlation is even stronger than the…

Discusses implementation issues surrounding the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 (Chapter 2), which consolidates 28 programs, including the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA), the major federal desegregation program. Major concerns include reduced eligibility requirements, distribution of funds, administrative responsibility,…

Presents findings of a 5-year study of U.S. educational finance. Analyzes spending patterns across 50 states and examines staffing patterns and expenditures across curriculum areas in California, Florida, and New York. Although this century has seen a major investment in public education, funding has been distributed unfairly and used…