The following obstacles to education reform are the most significant: (1) the system does not reward risk-taking; (2) the system resists oversight; (3) it is not accountable for failure; (4) too few resources are spent in the classroom; and (5) consumers of education are no match for the system. Old-fashioned bureaucratic monopolies continue to…

The history of the resource allocation model at the University of Utrecht is examined, stressing the need for timely adjustment of such models and analyzing the circumstances influencing their lifespan. General conclusions and implications for financial planning and budgeting are drawn. (Author/MSE)

The 1988 Chicago reforms require the school system to raise its student achievement levels to national norms in five years, reallocate resources away from the administration and toward schools, and establish local school councils as the basis for school-based management. So far, this reform implementation has not significantly affected student…

This article focuses on methods of funding allocation and quality assurance as prominent levers of change in higher education reform today. It is their interplay which forms the main components of coordination frameworks. The arguments for more market or new forms of state intervention can only be understood in the context of such a framework.…

This article examines a premise underlying teacher accountability policies, namely, that annual student learning gains can be attributed to individual teachers. After analyzing data collected in fourth- and fifth-grade reading and mathematics classes in 18 schools, the authors identify forms of instructional design that rely on multiple teachers.…

In a state as large and complex as California, education financing can become as complicated as rocket science. This two-page Q&A provides a brief, easy-to-understand explanation of California's school finance system and introduces the issues of its adequacy and equity. A list of resources providing additional information is provided.

This article measures targeting of public spending on school education in South Africa for the years 1995 and 2000. Equalisation of publicly subsidised pupil-teacher ratios in this period largely eliminated discrimination in subsidies per child, but some differentials in subsidies still remain as a result of differences in qualifications and…

This paper examines how three elementary schools used effective schools research to institutionalize the school-improvement process and identifies the types and levels of the resources they used. Each school--one in the upper midwest, one in the midwest, and one in the eastern United States--had been involved in a school-improvement process for…

As Pacific educational leaders strive to make their educational systems meaningful for their own island people, lessons can be learned from the research on change. This is the second in a series of three papers on the broad phases of educational change: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization and renewal. The Concerns Based Adoption…

Education, like other institutions of our society, is susceptible to "future shock", the inadequate preparation for a radically different future. Our nation is on the threshold of an age of scarcity, and the impact on education will be the accelerated demands for educators to justify their use of resources based on impersonal objective criteria.…

Recommends that education agencies adopt "intermediate implementation goals" for reform and assess progress toward these goals, in order to satisfy political pressure for visible improvements and thus retain public support. (MCG)

Combined effort on the part of teachers and administrators can help to improve schools. Simple rules for leadership are outlined. (Author/MLF)

Hollister Elementary School was one of several schools in its district to adopt a reform agenda initiated by the new district superintendent in 1995. This report tells the story of the school's adoption, implementation, and funding of the Success for All reading and Math Wings programs. The salient point is that the staff at the school managed to…

This paper describes how implementation of four key aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act can move schools closer to raising achievement for all students. These four aspects--accountability and testing, flexible use of federal resources, school choice, and quality teachers and quality teaching--can allow schools and districts to realize the…

In 1998, the New Jersey Supreme Court directed schools in 30 poor urban districts to adopt a comprehensive school reform program by the 2000-2001 academic year. Part of this program involved delegating resource-allocation decisions to the school level, thereby increasing schools' effectiveness and productivity by bringing the perspectives of…