This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). As described in the CPRE proposal and research design, the purpose was to closely…

The National Governors Association (NGA) and The Hunt Institute co-hosted the 2013 Governors Education Symposium. To inform participants and generate conversation about the themes of the symposium, the two organizations developed a set of issue briefs discussing four areas: (1) college- and career-training ready standards; (2) building coalitions…

The passage of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) in 1990 had a dramatic impact on the funding of primary and secondary education in the state. The amount of money spent on education increased significantly with the passage of KERA with districts in rural areas of the state experiencing the largest growth in spending (Hoyt, 1999). This has…

"From the Courtroom to the Classroom" examines recent developments pertaining to school desegregation in the United States. As the editors note, it comes at a time marked by a "general downplaying of race and ethnicity as criteria for the allocation of public resources, as well as a weakening of the political forces that support…

Using school-level descriptive data, this study examined the distribution of teachers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an attempt to build on previous research concerning the equity of the finance system in the state. Rather than focusing on revenue from the perspective of horizontal equity, this study used human resource data to examine the…

While much attention has been paid to educational reform or restructuring efforts to improve the nation's schools, the fiscal aspects of reform have received little attention. The Education Commission of the States studied 20 school districts in 6 states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, and South Carolina) to determine what impact…

This study compared the equity and adequacy outcomes for plaintiff and nonplaintiff school districts as they relate to the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990. Both descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used in comparing variables and in determining the differences in selected finance measures. There were three major…

Part of a series on contemporary school reform and special education, this report discusses how states are building capacity for standards-based reform. An introduction describes seven key areas in which states must build classroom and organizational level capacities, including: (1) teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions; (2) students'…

Discusses the content and impact of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990, which redesigned the state's education system, including new finance, governance, and accountability mechanisms. Although funding differences between school districts declined, the basic proportions of allocations changed very little. The KERA strategy appears…

This draft document presents an analysis of all major educational reform proposals before the Illinois General Assembly, assessing the costs of implementation and what benefits might be expected for the funding levels contained in the proposals themselves. The 18 areas examined are (1) student testing; (2) student retention/remediation; (3)…